WITH BROWN PREDOMINATING 949 
California west of the Sierra Nevada. Unlike the shy 
chewink ef the Eastern States, it comes to village door- 
yards not only in winter but often to rear its brood. 
Mr. Grinnell called my attention to a nest in a bush not 
twenty feet from the house at Palo Alto, and remarked 
that at Pasadena the Towhees usually nested upon the 
eround, while at Palo Alto they were oftener found in 
bushes. Mr. Shields records nests of the Californian 
Towhee in crevices of vine-covered rocks, in hollow 
trunks of trees, and in thickets five feet from the ground. 
These Towhees are most devoted parents, resembling the 
catbird in their piteous protests against any molesting 
of their treasures. arly and late they scratch under the 
dead leaves or in the rich garden soil for insects, or pick 
up scattered grain in the barnyard, or crumbs at the 
door. I have seen bits of muffin fed to the nestlings 
with impunity, but their orthodox diet is small insects 
and seeds, the former predominating while the parents 
feed them. They are fed by regurgitation at first, but in 
a few days they receive fresh food. As soon as able to 
fly well, they take to the trees and spend only enough 
time on the ground to satisfy their hunger. 
The characteristic song, like the tinkle of a silver bell, 
is heard oftenest at this time when, late in the after- 
noon, the little brood are safely housed in the sheltering 
branches of an oak tree, and in the earliest dawn the 
same clear notes come up from the copse on the edge 
of the brook. For, unlike most birds, the Towhee sings 
after his family cares are over as joyously as he did in 
the full tide of his wooing. Mr. Frank Chapman’s 
