The Green-tailed Towhee 



No. 66 



Green-tailed Towhee 



A. O. U. No. 592.1. Oberholseria chlorura (Audubon). 

 Synonyms. — Green-tailed Finch. Blanding's Finch. 



Description. — Adults (sexes alike): Crown and occiput rich chestnut; fore- 

 head blackish gray, with whitish loral spot on each side; cheeks mingled gray and 

 white; a short malar streak white, and a narrow, sharply defined sub-malar streak 

 dark gray; remaining upperparts olive-gray, tinged more or less with bright olive- 

 green. Wings and tail with brighter greenish edgings (pyrite yellow to warbler green) ; 

 bend of wing, axillars, and under coverts yellow; chin and throat white, sharply de- 

 fined and with convex posterior outline; sides of head and neck and remaining under- 

 pays neutral gray, clearing to white on abdomen, tinged with buffy or brownish on 

 sides, flanks, and crissum; under tail-coverts clear cream-buff. Bill blackish above, 

 paler below; legs brown, toes darker; irides cinnamon. Immature birds are brown 

 above, tinged with greenish and streaked with dusky, but with wings and tail much 

 as in adult. Nestlings show greenish on wings alone, and are otherwise finely streaked 

 above and below. Length of adult about 190.5-203 (7.50-8.00); wing 80 (3.15); 

 tail 84 (3-30); bill 12.7 (.50); tarsus 24 (.94). 



Recognition Marks. — Sparrow size; chestnut crown, white throat; greenish 

 coloration of upperparts, especially tail and wings. 



Nesting. — Nest: Low in bushes, especially sage (Artemisia tridentata), often 

 well concealed; a bulky affair of twigs, weed-stems, pine-needles, etc.; lined with root- 

 lets, grasses, or, rarely, horsehair. Eggs: 3 or 4; palest bluish or grayish white, 

 finely and almost uniformly sprinkled or spotted with light reddish brown (terra cotta 

 and testaceous to walnut-brown) and (concealed) purplish gray. Av. size 20.8 x 15.5 

 (.82 x .61). Season: May-July; two broods. 



General Range. — Western United States and northern Mexico; breeding from 

 central Oregon and south central Montana to western Texas and southern California; 

 wintering from southern portion of its breeding range south to Cape San Lucas and 

 Guanajuato. 



Distribution in California. — Summer resident in high Transition, chiefly 

 east of the Sierran divide, from the Warner Mountains south to the desert ranges 

 and the San Jacinto Mountains. Also breeds, northwesterly, at least to Sissons 

 (July 16, 1916), and southwesterly to Mt. Pinos (Grinnell), and south centrally along 

 the western slopes of the Sierras. Abundant during migrations easterly; and recorded 

 variously in the northern coastal ranges. Has occurred in winter in the San Diegan 

 district. 



Authorities. — Heermann (Embernagra Blandingiana) , Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. 

 Phila., ser. 2, ii., 1853, p. 265) ; Grinnell, Univ. Calif. Pub. Zool., vol. v., 1908, p. 103 

 (San Bernardino Mts. ; nesting habits, etc.); H. C. Bryant, Condor, vol. xiii., 191 1, pp. 

 203, 204 (food); Willelt, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 7, 1912, p. 87 (s. Calif.; occurrence, 

 nesting dates, etc.); Ingersoll, Condor, vol. x\\, 1913, p. 84 (destruction of nests). 



IT SEEMS absurd to call this bird a Towhee at all. To appearance 

 it is, rather, an overgrown Warbler, or a cross, say, between a Yellow- 



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