1912] Taylor: Birds and Reptiles of Northern Nevada. 403 



attracted the bird into the open. A second note is a low ' ' chip ' ' 

 or "chick," uttered when the bird is excited over something. 

 The birds make use of it to very good purpose, moving about 

 continually and thus giving it something of the so-called ven- 

 triloquial quality of the call-notes of the long-tailed chat. 



Two modes of retreat were observed. At times when flushed 

 the towhee will fly for some distance, then sink down into or 

 behind a bush, repeating the operation before a person can get 

 very close to it. Escape is also made by running along on the 

 ground with long green tail high in the air, and finally disap- 

 pearing into a suitable thicket. 



Although we were able to accumulate abundant circumstan- 

 tial evidence upon the nesting of the towhee, no nests were 

 actually discovered. On June 23 a bird was flushed as if from 

 a nest, but if there was one we failed to find it. The agitated 

 deportment of a pair of towhees on June 27, on a meadow on 

 Big Creek, probably indicated their nesting in the vicinity. The 

 first day of July, as I was working through some brush just above 

 a high meadow, a green-tail came running out toward me from 

 a chinquapin thicket. She ran along on the ground dragging 

 her wings as if hurt, heightening the effect of the pretended 

 deception by uttering a shrill note of pain. She limped and 

 ran off to a distance of ten feet. The cause of her solicitude 

 was found to be a youngster in newly acquired juvenal plumage. 

 From this time on immatures were commonly observed. 



On July 13 a young towhee was found dead on the waters 

 of Alder Creek Lake. 



Zamelodia melanocephala (Swainson) 

 Black-headed Grosbeak 



Noted at Quinn River Crossing, Big Creek Ranch, Big Creek 

 Canon, Duffer Peak, and Alder Creek. Although they were 

 fairly common at the stations on the desert, very few grosbeaks 

 were seen in the mountains. Found chiefly in Upper Sonoran, 

 although individuals ranged into Transition. 



Grosbeaks were observed along Quinn River and Wheeler 

 Creek. They were frequently seen at Big Creek Ranch, being 

 observed along the stream and in the willow thickets. By June 



