368 
FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC. 
592. Pipilo aberti Baird. Abert Towhee. 
Adults. — Lores and chin blackish; upper parts plain grayish brown, 
darkest on head; quills edged with grayish; lower parts pinkish brown, 
lighter on belly, and deepening to tawny on under tail coverts. Young : 
paler and duller, breast indistinctly streaked, Male: length (skins) 8.22- 
9-14, wing 3.54-3.81, tail 4.17-4.72, bill .59-.64. Female: length (skins) 
7.97-8.68, wing 3.36-3.62, tail 3.97-4.31, bill .59-.62. 
Distribution. — Breeds in upper and lower Sonoran zones from Colorado 
to southeastern California, Arizona, and New Mexico. 
Nest. — Rarely more than 5 feet from the ground, in willow thickets, 
canebrake, low bushes, or mesquite ; bulky, loosely made of weed stalks, 
inner bark, grass, and sticks, sometimes lined with inner bark or horse¬ 
hair. Eggs: 2 to 4, pale blue, sparsely marked with dark brown and 
black. 
The cinnamon colored aberti is the largest of the plain towhees. 
It is said to be extremely shy. Major Bendire gives its alarm note 
as huit huit. At Phoenix it is common among the mesquites and cot¬ 
tonwoods. 
GENUS OREOSPIZA. 
592.1. Oreospiza ehlorura (Aud.). Green-tailed Towhee. 
Bill small, conical; wing rather long and pointed ; tail long, rounded ; 
tarsus long, nearly a third the length of wing ; hind claw 
longer than its toe. (Structurally intermediate between 
Zonotrichia and Pipilo.) Adult male: top of head bright 
rufous; throat white ; upper parts olive gray, becoming 
bright olive green on wings and tail; malar stripe and 
jj[ middle of belly white; edge of wing, under wing coverts, 
*** and axillars bright yellow. Adult female: usually slightly 
Fig. 461. duller. Young: olive grayish, streaked with dusky; 
lower parts dingy white, chest and sides streaked with dusky; wings and 
tail like adults, but wing bars brownish buffy. Male: length (skins) 6.21- 
7.05, wing 3.01-3.28, tail 3.14-3.43, bill .48-.51. Female: length (skins) 
6.52-7.10, wing 2.80-3.10, tail 2.93-3.33, bill .45-.51. 
Distribution. — Breeds in Transition zone in the interior plateau region 
from the western edge of the Plains to Coast Range in California, and north 
to Montana ; migrates to southern Lower California and central Mexico. 
Nest. — On or near the ground in sagebrush, chaparral, or cactus, made 
of grass and stems lined sometimes with horsehair. Eggs: 4, whitish, 
speckled, or sprinkled with reddish brown. 
The name Oreospiza calls to mind one of the most attractive and 
gentle of birds, with the memory of warm days when the smell of 
the aromatic mint and Ceanothus filled the air. The green-tail fol¬ 
lows the Transition zone chaparral from the zonal level, where a 
dense brush thicket covers wide areas, and where he is one of a 
number of brush birds, up to the extreme limit of the chaparral, where 
there are only scattered patches of dwarf brush on high rock slides, 
and where he is the one brush bird, conspicuous among the boreal 
solitaires and nutcrackers. 
His mewing call-note, a soft mew , mew-ah-eep, seems his most 
