604 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 part 2 



the somber brown bird which in great measure depends on the cattle 

 troughs for its water supply. The brown towhee is essentially a 

 resident of the upper Sonoran zone, but it may be found occasionally 

 in suitable habitat both above and below it. 



As this race, like petulans, is largely dependent on "edge" habitat, 

 its abundance depends to some degree on grazing. Tall grass and 

 thick brush do not suit it; consequently the thinning of such vegeta- 

 tion by the grazing and browsing of cattle benefits the towhees. 

 This race also has responded to the artificial habitats produced in 

 residential areas. J. G. Tyler (1913) notes that it occurs among the 

 shrubs and trees along the irrigation canal and creeks from the foot- 

 hills, and was most common in Kearney Park in the city of Fresno. 

 He found nests 3 to 8 feet above the ground and lined with horsehair. 

 He states : 



"The usual complement of eggs is four, but I have found several 

 sets of but three, and in at least three different instances the birds 

 began the duties of incubation with just two eggs to their credit. 

 The sets of two were in each case the first ones laid, so far as I could 

 determine. May and June are the nesting months, my earliest 

 record being May 1 (1906) for considerably incubated eggs. A set 

 well along in incubation was found June 30 of the same year, while 

 all other dates have fallen between these two extremes." 



Distribution 



Range. — The Sacramento brown towhee is resident in California 

 east of the humid coastal region, from Humboldt County (Hoopa 

 Valley) to Napa County, east to the foothills of the Cascade Moun- 

 tains and the Sierra Nevadas, and south along the eastern side of 

 San Joaquin Valley to Kern County (Piute Mountains, Fort Tejon). 



Egg date. — California: 1 record. May 9. 



PIPILO FUSCUS EREMOPHILUS van Rossem 



Argus Brown Towhee 

 Contributed by Henry E. Childs, Jr. 



Habits 



This very restricted race of the brown towhee is considered a relict 

 population of a group formerly more widely distributed but now con- 

 fined by the deserts surrounding the Argus Mountains. It was de- 

 scribed in 1935 from specimens taken in Mountain Spring Canyon 

 at 5,500 feet in the Argus Mountains of Inyo County, Calif. As 

 John Davis (1951) points out: "Nearly aU [known] specimens have 

 been collected at this locality and only at this station has breeding 



