2D BeNDIRK on Pipilo fiiscus ntesoteuctts and Pifiilo aberti. [January 



The eggs are usually three in number ; about one nest in ten 

 contains four , occasionally I have found the bird sitting hard on 

 but two, probably a second or third brood. On comparing notes 

 with Mr. Herbert Brown of Tucson, an enthusiastic naturalist, 

 who has made careful and extended observations over pretty 

 much the same ground I did in 1872, I found the nesting season 

 of 1872 must have been an unusually late one, as he has since then 

 found many species breeding there fully two months earlier than I 

 did. Nests of this species with perfectly fresh eggs were found by 

 me as late as Sept. 1 1 , and it is reasonable to presume that as many 

 as three broods are raised by some of these birds at least. 



The ground color of the eggs of the Canon Towhee is a very 

 pale bluish white, or very light pearl gray, scarcely an egg in a 

 series of one hundred and three specimens can be called pure 

 white. As far as markings are concerned, these eggs can be 

 divided into two types. In one the spots are sharp, well defined, 

 occasionally connected with each other by lines and scrawls, and 

 principally concentrated about the larger end. Their color is a 

 very deep brown, almost a black. This pattern includes the less 

 heavily marked specimens. In the second type, the markings 

 are less clearly defined, more irregular in shape, mere blotches, 

 and much more profuse. The color is less deep, more of a 

 claret brown or vinaceous rufous. In addition fine shell markings 

 of lavender and heliotrope purple are scattered more or less 

 profusely over the entire egg in both types. The eggs bear a 

 certain resemblance to those of Sturnella, especially to heavily 

 marked specimens of the western race, Sturnella magna neglect a. 

 Nearly all the eggs of Pipilo fuscus mesoleucus are much 

 more heavily marked than those of the other two races, aside 

 from the radical difference of the ground color, which is also 

 more lustrous. In a series of one hundred and three specimens 

 before me, all but eleven collected by myself, there is considerable 

 difference both in size and shape. The eggs are mostly ovate, 

 some elliptical ovate. The average size of the series before me is 

 .92 X -69 inch. The largest egg measures 1.04 X -7i 5 the 

 smallest .81 X -66 inch, and a runt egg of this species in the collec- 

 tion measures but .70 X .56 inch. 



In its habits and its call notes the Canon Towhee does not 

 differ materially from Pipilo aberti. Neither can be called a 

 songster. It is more or less terrestrial at all times, rather shy, 



