CANYON BROWN TOWHEE 629 



The duet squeal is exactly the same as that of the California brown 

 towhee and is uttered under the same circumstances, in ceremonial 

 reaffirming of the pair relationship. It can be represented as squeal- 

 churrrr or squeal — squeal-squeal-squeal, which can readily be told in 

 the field from the laughing squeal-cha-cha-cha or squeal — hah-hah-hah 

 of the Abert's towhee. 



Birds keep in touch by an occasional unquavering locative note, 

 see. It is similar to the food call of the young and to the louder 

 warning call of the parent mentioned earlier. Finally there is a light 

 tic of alarm, uttered when an intruder comes near the nest. 



Bailey (1923) reports that the commonest call resembles that of 

 the California towhee, scree-kee-gee, kee-gee-kee. She likens the one 

 quick call note to that of the Gila woodpecker. 



Field marks. — The traveler of country roads through river-bottom 

 farmlands in southern Arizona will flush before his car numerous 

 nondescript brown birds of medium size from the mesquites and 

 hackberries of the fence rows. These are Bendire thrashers, curve- 

 billed thrashers, crissal thrashers, female cardinals and pyrrhuloxias, 

 Abert's towhees, and canyon towhees. Of all these, the canyon 

 towhee has the broadest and shortest tail for its size. It does not 

 constantly jerk or bob the tail, as do the pyrrhuloxias. The canyon 

 towhee is the only member of this group with a lone central dark 

 breast spot. This attribute eliminates everything but the strikingly 

 handsome, white-flashing lark sparrow. Of course when the bird is 

 on the ground its spot cannot be relied upon, especially if it is under 

 shady bushes. Then it can easily be mistaken for an Abert's towhee. 

 However the light face and fairly dark bill of the canyon towhee is 

 in great contrast to the whitish bill and black area around its base, 

 by which the Abert's towhee presents a different appearance almost 

 as far as it can be seen. 



Enemies. — Apparently little is kno%vn of the enemies of the canyon 

 towhee. Herbert Friedmann (1934) states that Griffing Ban- 

 croft has two sets of eggs from Santa Fe County, N. Mex., which had 

 been parasitized by brown-headed cowbirds {Moloihrus ater) . 



External parasites of the families Ricinidae and Hippoboscidae 

 have been found on specimens banded near Tucson. 



Distribution 



Range. — The canyon towhee is resident from western Arizona (Black 

 Mountains, Kofa Mountains, Papago Well) east through New Mexico 

 (except Union County in northeast), south to northern Sonora (lat. 

 30° N.), northern Ciuhuahua (lat. 31° N.), and extreme western 

 Texas (El Paso, Guadalupe Mountains). 



