716 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
December 7-10, 1915 (Ligon). [On the Rio Grande Bird Reserve (Elephant 
Butte), it was abundant, November 23-December 9, 1916 (Willett).]—W. W. 
Cooke. 
Nest. —In sagebrush, piny on pines, junipers, thick bunches of cholla cactus, 
or between the leaves of yuccas; deep, bulky, loosely made of coarse grasses lined 
with rootlets or horsehair. Eggs: Usually 3, bluish white, or pearl gray, spotted 
and scrawled with brown and sometimes black, with purple shell markings. 
General Habits. —The big, fluffy, rufous-crowned Canyon Towhee, 
Mr. Bailey found common and breeding throughout the juniper belt 
around the base of the Capitan Mountains in 1899, where a nest built 
conveniently near a spring, in a bush three or four feet from the ground, 
had several pieces of old rags worked into its outer wall. The birds 
were quiet save for their sharp chirk , a note of alarm and inquiry. 
Near Santa Rosa one came familiarly about our camp, perching 
in the sunny top of a juniper, with head up and tail hanging, singing 
even through the quiet noonday hours. The song was loud and rather 
pleasing though monotonous, one note being repeated seven times, 
often prefaced by a thin chip and given in a variety of ways that made 
it seem more interesting. The birds were also frequently seen among 
the rocks. They were found, September 20, 1903, with the first 
sagebrush at 7,500 feet on the west slope of Taos Pass. Two were 
seen about July 15, 1904, near Taos Pueblo, but none in the mountains 
above. Below, on the sides of Hondo Valley, on August 12, when we 
found them common and singing, a grown young one was taken whose 
iris was pale brown and which had the rufous feathers just beginning 
to come in on its crown. It had been feeding on the slope of the 
valley where there were fields of ripe wheat, and its stomach contained 
mainly wheat, but also a few insects, including grasshoppers. An 
adult taken in the same place had eaten seeds, including wheat, and 
also a few insects. 
Two were seen August 18, 1906, on a fence in Espanola, and fully 
a dozen were noted by Mr. Gaut October 15, 1904, in the cane cactus 
(Opuntia arboresce?is) when riding between Abiquiu and Espanola. 
At times they would follow the side of the road, flying from one Opuntia 
to another for several hundred yards before deciding to let horse and 
rider pass them. Along adobe and rock walls, rough brushy banks of 
irrigation ditches, and brush fences they seemed the most numerous. 
On the east side of the San Andres Mountains, where Mr. Gaut 
found them rather common among the rocks on the sides of the canyons, 
they seemed to enjoy scratching the ground in the Apache plume 
(Fallugia paradoxia) thickets. Pairs usually traveled together. In 
the Manzano Mountains, late in fall in certain favored spots, they 
were found usually in pail’s or fours. Exposed rocky canyons in the 
foothills and on the slopes were their principal resorts. 
