AMERICAN OliNITIIOLOGY. 43 



each load to sing his loudest and sweetest refrain, always using the 

 very tip of the tree for this purpose. 



In the fall when they are migrating they depart from their usual ha- 

 bits and may often be met with in other woods, especially birches, in 

 Company with other species on their way south. At this time they 

 sing very little. 



( 



l GREEN-'TAILED TOWHEE. j 



A. O- U. XO. 593.1 (Oreospiza chlorura). 



RANGE. 



Breeds from the Rocky Mountain and plateau region west to the 

 Sierras and San Bernadino Mountains. Migrates to Mexico although 

 a few remain in the San Diegan district of California. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Length 7 in.; billconical; taillong; rounded; tarsus long. Adults; — top 

 of head bright chestnut; upper parts olivaceous; vvings greenish yellow 

 as is the tail; throat and belly white; breast and sides grayish. Young 

 birds have the crown very dull, nearly the same color as the back. 

 They are also duller below than the adults and have both the back and 

 the breast streaked with dusky. 



NEST AND EGGS. 

 This species nest in the thick sage brush or thorny deer brush. It 

 is a small neatly cupped affair composed of small twigs and lined with 

 grass. The four eggs have a whitish ground and are thickly specked 

 with cinnamon. 



HABITS. 



One evening just before sunset, I drove into a narrow valley in the 

 high Sierras, through which ran the swift clear stream of the American 

 river, while on either side of the vivid green and flowery meadows 

 which bordered it, rose steep rocky walls at whose base were long 

 slopes of granite talus, overgrown with a tangle of thorny underbrush. 

 From this miniature forest rose such a chorus of sweet song as would 

 have delighted the heart of any bird lover, and here I decided to stay. 

 There was no room for me in the small inn, but a cot in a thick clump 



