614 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 paRt = 



clear. Presumably it is another ancestral remnant of song no longer 

 highly important to the species. A. H. Miller (MS.) reports a 

 similar pleasant finchlike song in brown towhees in northern Mexico. 



Its varied repertoire is indeed remarkable for so unmelodious a bird, 

 which seems to act on the premise "one tsip is worth a thousand 

 words." 



Field marks. — This dull brown bird appears as a very plain, large 

 sparrow, sUghtly smaller than a robin. The moderately long tail and 

 the cinnamon or rusty under tail coverts are the most noticeable 

 field marks. The throat and upper breast are buff, sometimes with 

 faint dusky streaks. Its hunched over posture and ground feeding 

 habits readUy identify it from other sparrows. 



Enemies. — On the Berkeley campus I found the Norway rat the 

 principal predator of the brown towhee, destroying many nests, eggs, 

 and young along the wooded creeks. The domestic house cat was 

 often seen stalking these birds. Man, through destruction of habitat 

 and disturbance of nests, was the greatest single factor in nest 

 desertion. 



In November 1948 at Berkeley I watched a pair of towhees chivvy 

 a cat crouched beside an ash can. First one bird, then the other, 

 dropped to the ground about 10 feet from the cat. Both tsipped 

 loudly and continuously, one at the rate of 60 per minute. White- 

 crown sparrows and a scrub jay were attracted by the noise. The 

 cat meowed, apparently in frustration, as the birds moved around it 

 just out of reach. After 5 minutes the birds lost interest and departed. 



The same year I reported (1948) the reactions of a pair of brown 

 towhees to a pair of scrub jays intent on robbing their nest. Another 

 pair of towhees joined them, and all four flew at the jays, fluttering 

 widespread wings and tail and uttering the squawk note. Several 

 times they dropped to the ground within a few feet of me, showing no 

 fear. In their excitement the resident pair attacked the other towhees 

 trying to help them, territorial defense against their own kind becoming 

 momentarily paramount. One jay was driven off, but the second, 

 after being driven from the nest bush three times, was no longer 

 molested. The following day the nest was empty, the towhees had 

 left the area, and did not return. 



In a series of food habit studies of important predators on range 

 lands at the San Joaquin Experimental Range at O'Neals, Calif., 

 H. S. Fitch (1948a, 1948b, 1949) found the towhee to be a minor 

 prey subject. Ground squirrels, although serious predators of valley 

 quail eggs, were seen being chased by adult towhees away from a nest 

 containing four young. Coyotes were abundant, but among 2,250 

 identified items in their diet he found only two towhees. Of the 

 snakes in the area the Pacific rattlesnake was the only species known 



