The Green-tailed Towhee 



and inviting enough. Of song the bird possesses a surprising repertory. 

 There is something dashing and wren-like about his more familiar ditties, 

 and also something faintly reminiscent of the Vesper Sparrow (Pocecetes 

 gramineus). Meay, tsit sit sit sit reminds me of orthodox Pipilo, and 

 Ah fewgee weeee pilly willy willy will carry one right back to Pipilo ery- 

 throphthalmus — or will, that is, when one gets over the surprise of the 

 opening notes, which in the case of two birds heard at Goose Lake were 

 strikingly like those of the Eastern Phoebe {Sayornis phoebe) . The Green- 

 tailed Towhee, I suspect, 

 also, of being a bit of a 

 mimic as well as a wag. 

 One vivacious outburst 

 from the chaparral hard 

 by our Goose Lake 

 camp sounded at first 

 like a White-crowned 

 Sparrow at his best ; then 

 it shifted to a wild med- 

 ley in which I recognized 

 not only the call of the 

 Red-shafted Flicker, 

 but certain phrases of 

 the Western Lark Spar- 

 row. Mind, I am not 

 absolutely sure it was 

 the Towhee, but he 

 mewed a moment later, 

 and he was my only sus- 

 pect. In singing, the 

 bird takes a very modest 

 position on the side of a 

 sage bush, and while he 

 is not especially wary in 

 these circumstances, it 

 is hard to get a clear 

 view of colors so exqui- 

 sitely blended. 



The secrets of this 

 bird's nesting lie in the 

 fact that it uniformly 

 selects dense cover, how- 

 ever prosaic, the heart 



Taken in San Bernardino Mountains Photo by Wright M. Pierce 



NEST AND EGGS OF THE GREEN-TAILED TOWHEE 



388 



