134 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



imder Lieutenant Parke, mentions first meeting with this species near Tuc- 

 son. They were frequenting, in numbers, the tliick undergrowth, and were 

 seeking seeds and insects on the ground. They seemed inclined to shun 

 observation, and always kept in the most retired situations. They were 

 sociable among themselves, going about singly or in pairs, associated with 

 the Poospiza hilincata and two or three other kinds of Fincli. When started 

 they fly low, diving into the bushes, and soon disajjpear from sight. Occa- 

 sionally, until reaching El Paso, Texas, birds of this species were met with, 

 mingling with the flocks of migrating Frinyillidcc. He there procured a pair 

 apparently just entering upon incubation. 



Instead of being suited by color, like most of the other Pipilos, to inhabit 

 dark thickets and among dry leaves, this species is clad in a gayer livery, and 

 seems well adapted for concealment in its summer resorts, and also among 

 the growing vegetation of the lower country during the rainy season. Dr. 

 Heermann found a few wintering in the Colorado Valley, and yet more at 

 San Diego, but they left both places in March. He found them silent and 

 shy, hiding very closely in the bushes, and feeding altogether on the ground. 

 The only note he heard, resembled the crowing note of the California Quail. 



Among the memoranda of IVfr. Xantus, made near Fort Tejon, are the two 

 following : " 4,839, nest and two eggs (of Pipilo chlorurus) found in a dry 

 hedge in Mr. Ptitchie's garden ; 5,083, nest and eggs found in a dark garden- 

 hedge." 



The eggs of the chlorurus are like those of no other Pipilo that I have 

 met with. They are peculiar in shape, being nearly of an exact oval, neither 

 end being apparently much more rounded than the other. Their ground- 

 color is white with a bluish tint, over which is profusely diffused a cloud of 

 fine dottings of a pinkish-drab. These markings are occasionally so fine and 

 so thickly distributed as to give to the egg the appearance of a uniform 

 color, or as an unspotted pinkish drab-colored egg. Occasionally the dots 

 are deeper and larger, and more sparsely diffused. 



In considering the eggs of the Pipilos in general we find certain variations 

 which deserve more than a passing notice. Those of erytlirophthalvius, 

 oregonus, arcticus, and megcdonyx are all fringilline in their characters, and 

 have a marked affinity to eggs of Melospiza, Zonotrichia, and many other 

 genera of this order. The eggs of aherti, fuscus, mesoleuciis, and alhigida are 

 also all closely alike, and exhibit a very close resemblance to those of the 

 Agelaii, and even of the Icteri, while the eggs of P. chlorurus, though of a 

 fringilline character, are unlike either style. 



