Some Ways of the Oregon Towhee 



By MRS. STEPHEN E. THAYER, Everett, Wash. 

 With photographs by the author 



THE Oregon Towhee is a permanent resident of western Washington. 

 It frequents the half-cleared country about the farms, and the suburbs 

 of the cities, where a morning's walk at any season of the year is sure 

 to be rewarded by the sight of two or three of these handsome birds. Their 

 plumage of black, cinnamon-red, and white, renders them conspicuous objects 

 in the landscape, even on the dullest days. They are to be seen about the 

 fences and brush-piles, or passing in low, graceful flight from cover to cover, 

 or feeding on the ground in protected places, usually singly, though sometimes 

 in pairs, and rarely in companies of three. When feeding, the Towhee 



MALE OREGON TOWHEE FEEDING YOUNG 

 Note the comparative inconspicuousness of the young bird 



scratches so energetically that the debris is scattered in every direction, and 

 he is so intent upon his work that, with care, one may approach near enough 

 to see with a glass the uncanny red eye. At the slightest alarm, he slips into 

 a thicket, and remains so completely hidden that only the tremble of a branch 

 betrays his presence. Only during the mating season is a favorable opportunity 

 afforded to observe him at leisure in the open. Then he perches on the top- 

 most twig of a shrub or low tree, and sings untiringly. At its best, the song is a 

 clear trill, introduced by a rather prolonged low note, To-whee-e-e, with 

 much emphasis on the trill. Often the first note is omitted, when the trill 



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