482 ANIMAL LIFE IN THE YOSEMITE 



Green-tailed Towhee. Oberholseria chlorura (Audubon) 



Field characters. — Size and habits recalling both Fox Sparrow and Spurred Towhee, 

 but coloration and voice very different from either. Crown of head bright chestnut ; 

 throat abruptly pure white, surrounded by uniform light gray of neck and breast ; wings 

 and tail dull yellowish green; back greenish brown, not streaked; no white spots on 

 wings or tail, or dark spots on breast. (See pi. 485.) Young streaked. Seeks safety 

 under brush rather than by flight. Voice: Song of male, a wheezy sup-se-tev/ -See-si-se, 

 or eet-ter-te-te-ie-si-si-si-seur; call note of both sexes a cat-like me-u or zew, or a more 

 prolonged mee a-yeiv. 



Occurrence. — Moderately common summer visitant to Canadian Zone on both slopes 

 of the Sierra Nevada, and to Transition Zone east of the mountains. Observed at Crane 

 Flat and Chinquapin and thence eastward to Porcupine Flat and Mono Meadow; and 

 again, beyond the mountains, near Walker Lake, Williams Butte, at Mono Mills, and 

 at Mono Lake Post Office. Seen in Yosemite Valley October 2, 1915, September 5, 

 1917, May 15 to 23, 1919, and June 23, 1920. Eanges more widely after nesting season; 

 for example, noted at 10,700 feet on Mount Florence, August 21, 1915. Nests in brush 

 thickets, and forages near or beneath these. In pairs during nesting season, solitary at 

 other times. 



The Canadian Zone thickets of snowbush, chinquapin, and green 

 manzanita which harbor the Mariposa Fox Sparrow during the summer 

 months are at the same time often frequented by another big towhee-like 

 sparrow, but one of altogether different coloration and voice. This is the 

 Green-tailed Towhee. It wears a very unusual pattern of coloration, dis- 

 tinguishing it from all other birds in the Sierras, and its call note is as 

 distinctive as its plumage. The Green-tailed Towhee is not so abundant 

 as the fox sparroAV on the west slope of the mountains ; our censuses there 

 show about one individual of the former to four of the latter. On the east 

 slope, however, the Green-tailed Towhee is found in many places to the 

 exclusion of the fox sparrow; in fact, the former seems to be inherently 

 a Great Basin product, along with the sagebrush and sage thra-sher, and 

 its occurrence to the westward is in the nature of a spilling over on the 

 extreme margin of its geographic range. 



The combination of conical bill, long tail, short wings, and stout legs 

 and feet, proclaim the Green-tailed Towhee to be adapted for foraging 

 beneath brush patches. (See pi. 486.) And that is exactly the manner 

 in which it gains its livelihood. For safety it depends upon dodging into 

 the recesses of the thickets, its short wings and long tail being suited to 

 this means of escape. 



Nesting with the Green-tailed Towhee begins about the middU^ of May, 

 and from then until the end of July the birds are busy with family duties. 

 Upon our arrival at Chinquapin on May 19, 1919, we found the birds in 

 pairs with the males in full song, and at Tamarack Flat, on May 25, 1919, 

 two completed nests were found, one of which contained one fresh egg 



