1SS5.J Batchelder, Winter Notes from Neiv Mexico. 2 37 



fine themselves to such places. One clay I found one fraternizing 

 with a flock of Juncos in a bare weedy field, and another was 

 found in a clump of scrub oaks high up on the hills. In their 

 habits they seemed to differ in no way from their Eastern 

 relatives. 



In the willows along the river bank the Canon Towhees 

 {Pipilo fusctis mesolc?icus) were sometimes to be seen, though 

 they frequented other places as well. Among their resorts were 

 the small cliffs scattered along the river, where they poked about 

 among the masses of fallen rocks at their bases, and in the clefts 

 and gullies by which they were intersected. They were apt to 

 be found, too, about the Mexican villages, where they might be 

 seen perched on the high adobe wall surrounding a courtyard, 

 or exploring the ruins of some deserted house that offered a safe 

 retreat in case of alarm. Perhaps, however, the places where 

 they were most numerous were some small irrigated fields on the 

 outskirts of one of these little villages. Where these fields bordered 

 the river or an irrigating ditch, they were fringed with bushes, 

 chiefly willows, that were a favorite haunt of the Towhees. 

 Here one would sometimes be seen running along and then stop- 

 ping, somewhat like a Robin on an earthworm hunt. Their run 

 really consists, however, of a series of rapid hops. There is much 

 that is Thrush-like about their air and motions, and if seen from 

 behind one might almost be mistaken for a Robin, its form and atti- 

 tudes are so similar, though it does not stand as upright as a Robin 

 very often does. As a rule they kept on the ground, but now and 

 then they would get up in a bush or even in a low tree, but as 

 soon as a Towhee saw he was attracting attention he immediately 

 shifted his position or retired silently with a swift low flight to 

 some safer place. 



Though they commonly go in small flocks I am inclined to 

 think that some at least remain paired throughout the year. They 

 are not infrequently found in couples ; in one such case dissection 

 proved them to be male and female ; in another when I had shot 

 one bird the survivor showed evident signs of distress. 



Their ordinary note is a chuck a good deal like a magnified copy 

 of the Song Sparrow's chuck. 



Among these bushes along the river were flocks of Juncos, too, 

 though, indeed, it would be hard to say where they were not. 

 Here in the bushes, in the bare weedy fields, among the pines on 



