118 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



At Carson City, early in March, his attention was attracted by the peculiar 

 notes of this Fipilo ; the bird was sitting on a high rock abov'e the thick 

 chaparral of tlie hillside, and sharply defined against the sky. It was readily 

 distinguishable by the black of its head and breast, in sharp contrast with 

 tlie pure white of its lower parts. Every few moments it would raise its head 

 to utter, in a short trill, its rude song. When approached, it would jerk 

 its expanded white-tipped tail, and disappear among the bushes. It was 

 abundant in the chaj)arrals, on the hillsides, and among the thickets and 

 bufCalo-berry bushes along the rivers. The males were in full song, perching, 

 as they sang, on a prominent rock or bush. 



Mr. Nuttall met with a nest of this species on the 14th of June. It was 

 built in the shelter of a low undershrub, in a depression scratched out for its 

 reception. It was made of a ratlier copious lining of clean wiry grass, with 

 some dead leaves beneath, as a foundation. The eggs were four, nearly 

 hatched, very closely resembling those of the Towhee, thickly spotted over, 

 but more so at the larger end, with very small round and very numerous 

 reddish-chocolate spots. The pair showed great solicitude about their nest, 

 the male, in particular, approaching boldly to scold and lament at the dan- 

 gerous intrusion. 



The Oregon Ground Eobin Mr. Lord considered a quaint and restless 

 bird. He found it very abundant from the coast to the summit of the Rocky 

 Mountains, and also very common on Vancouver Island. It arrives the last 

 of April and first of May, and frequents dark woods and thick tangled 

 underbrush. He describes it as stealthy and shy, with a habit of hiding, 

 but its cry usually betrays its place of concealment. This cry he states to 

 be like the squall of the Catbird. 



Mr. Townsend found it abundant on the Columbia, where, as lie observed, 

 it lived mostly on the ground, or on bushes near the ground, rarely ascending 

 trees. Mr. Audubon gives the measurement of its egg as 1.12 inches in 

 length and .87 in breadth. 



The egg of this species is more rounded than are those of this genus gen- 

 erally, and there is but little difference between the two ends. The ground- 

 color is white, with a greenish tinge, and is very generally and profusely 

 spotted with fine markings of reddish and purplish-brown. They measure 

 .95 by .80 of an inch. 



