24 BeNDIRE on Pipito fuscUS mesolenacs and Pipilo aberti. [January 



strictly within the scope of this paper. It will be seen that the 

 eggs of P. fiiscus mesoleucus are entirely different, both in 

 ground color and in the amount of markings, from the other two 

 races. Similar cases occur in the genera Spinus, Aphelocoma, 

 Harporhynchiis, as well as others, showing conclusively that the 

 egg alone cannot always be relied upon, to point out the relation- 

 ship of species. 



But to come back to the subject proper. No mention, as far as 

 I am aware, has been made of the eggs of this subspecies by the 

 earlier ornithological writers, excepting Dr. J. G. Cooper who 

 says in his 'Ornithology of California,' page 248, as follows : 

 '"•This species is very abundant in southern Arizona, where its 

 habits are much like those of P. abertii. The eggs resemble 

 those of P. fusca" The late Dr. T. M. Brewer published the 

 first correct description of these eggs on page 516, Appendix to 

 Vol. Ill, 'History of North American Birds' by Baird, Brewer 

 and Ridgway, from specimens collected by the writer in 1S72, in 

 the vicinity of the present site of Camp Lowell, about seven miles 

 northeast of Tucson, Arizona. Here I found the Canon Towhee 

 nesting quite abundantly on the more or less open plains im- 

 mediately back from the Rillitto Creek bottom, which are here 

 covered with straggling mesquite trees and bushes of various 

 kinds, some of them attaining a height often or twelve feet, inter- 

 spersed here and there with cacti and yuccas of different species, 

 the cholla cactus predominating. The nests were usually found 

 from one to two hundred yards distant from the creek bottom and 

 scarcely ever more than a mile away from this, but never in the 

 bottom proper, the chosen home of Pipilo aberti. According to 

 Mr. W. E. D. Scott, who has done so much excellent work in 

 Arizona in more recent years, the Canon Towhee is equally abun- 

 dant in the neighboring mountains and ranges well up to the 

 pine forests. He found his first nests in the Catalina Mountains 

 at an altitude of 3500 feet, about the middle of March, and ac- 

 cording to him the breeding period extended well into July.* To 

 explore the same localities that Mr. Scott did in 18S3, would 

 have been exceedingly unwholesome in 1872, on my second visit 

 to Arizona, and still more so in previous years. The chances 

 would have been more than even, that an inquisitive naturalist, 

 venturing into the recesses of the Catalina Mountains, even 



* Auk, Vol. IV, No. 3, July 1887, p. 204. 



