The Abert Towhee 



AS COMPARED with our more familiar Brown Towhee (P. crissalis), 

 Pipilo aberti is a somewhat smaller bird, paler above, more warmly, and 

 especially more diffusely "cinnamomeous" below. The distinctions 

 apply, however, only to birds in the hand, for Pipilo aberti in the bush is 

 one of the shyest of our western birds. Whether it is because of the 

 comparative thinness of cover in his desert home, or whether it is because 

 of an especial toothsomeness which the owls and hawks have discovered 

 in aberti 's flesh, the bird will not reveal itself to any but the most casual 

 glance, even when its nest is threatened. Not even that mocking wood- 

 sprite, the Western Chat, knows how to be so evasive. Our knowledge of 

 Pipilo aberti, therefore, is chiefly confined to its notes and "song," and to 

 its nests and eggs, endlessly encountered. 



The creaking note of Abert 's Towhee is a good deal more of a feature 

 of the local desert chorus than is that of P. crissalis in its haunts. While 

 never varying in general character, it is susceptible of great modification 

 of duration and intensity. It serves every purpose, therefore, from the 

 mild overtures of amiable companionship to the fiercest challenge of 

 rivalry, rasped out with an intensity to compel attention at a hundred 

 yards. In any case, it seems more metallic and resonant than that of 

 P. crissalis. The "chip" note of protest is, likewise, crissalis-\ike, but it 

 is milder and more musical. 



The only time an Abert Towhee would think of questioning your 

 presence is after the discovery of its nest, three or four feet high in a 

 bush of "all thorns," or else cunningly concealed in the thickened leaf- 

 age of a decapitated stump of mesquite. The female has slipped off 

 unseen; but if you linger for an unseemly time, the "chips" increase in fre- 

 quency, and you become aware presently of an anxious pair of brown 

 ghosts who are circling round and round you in the shrubbery. An 

 occasional glimpse discovers the female in the lead, and the male following 

 her about like an importunate puppy. 



Although they nest twice in each season, Abert Towhees are not very 

 prolific, both because of their many enemies, and of the fact that the 

 set rarely exceeds three, and not always two, in number. The eggs are 

 pale bluish green, "bird-egg green," one might say, as to ground, and the 

 sparse spotting of purplish black suggests Icterine or Agelaiine affinities. 

 Occasionally, the ground-color goes to pure white, and then the resem- 

 blance to a Scott Oriole's egg is irresistible. 



A typical nest of this Towhee is a bulky assemblage of weed-stems, 

 dead vines, bark-strips, green leaves; and, interiorly, coiled bark, dried 

 grasses, and horsehair. Bark is a favorite material, and I have seen 

 nests which contained nothing else. Occasionally, the taste inclines to 

 green grass, and the superstructure may be composed of green, or recently 



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