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BULLETIN OF THE COOPER ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. Nestino and Other I!abits of the Oreoon Towhee. BY D. A. COHEN, ALAI?IEDA? CAL. [Read betbre the Northern Division of ?he Cooper Orn. Club,' Sept, x898. ] : HIS variety, Pipito maculatus ore- onus, was here at one time known by local collectors as the Spur- red Towbee, P.m. toeflalooF.r, but now as near as I can determine the true Spurred Towhee is not found nearer than Monterey County and our Alame- da County variety is ore. ffonus. With us the Oregon Towbee is resident, spending the late summer until spring somewhat gregariously, caused probab- ly more from choice of location than from sociability, but it is not observed in pairs so much as the Californian Tow- hee, ?. fusct?s crissalis, at the period just stated. At this season it is wariest, secluding itself to the underbrush, but after pairing in the spring is much more easily approached, ()wing in a great measure to its uneasiness at the ap- proach or the invasion of its nesting site. At this time, especially if a nest is under construction, both birds dis- play great uneasiness, flitting about the tops of the low growth, uttering their unmusical "chir-chee-wee" or "che-wee- ee" but their utmost anxiety is display- ed after the young are hatched. The birds continue their various notes so long as a person remains in the vicinity of the nest, and approach quite dose if the person remains reasonably quiet. Presuming the female does all the incu- hating, the male at this period generally betrays the vicinity of the nest by his nervousness, his notes first attracting attention. He is often heard, from his perch, uttering notes, caused by noth- ing further than inclinations. The notes at any time are little varied. Af- ter the young are grown very little is heard of the Oregon Towhee's vocal powers unless the bird is driven from its retreat or is suddenly startled. Being almost terrestrial i[ is also part- ly arboreal, often flying short distances from tree to tree and when pursued oft- en forsaking the underbrush for trees. Its food is obtained. mostly from the ground chiefly by scratching, after the manner of the robin, and is mostly in- sectivorous. It is one of the last birds to settle down for the night. I have not met this bird throughout the coun-. try as abundantly as I expected to and among hundreds of nests I have found only one was away from Alameda. This nest was found by accident. As I was resting in a densely wooded local- ity thickly grown up with underbrush where I had for a number of years no- ticed one pair of Oregon Towhees, yet. never expecting to find the nest in such a wild place, a movement in the bushes dose by almost caused me to shoot at a supposed wood rat, but up- on investigation it proved that it was the flushed bird slipping back on- to the nest; containing a. handsome set of four eggs, the nest elaborately com- posed of weed stems and a larger pro- portion of dead leaves, situated two feet from the ground among dense brambles and fallen leaves, and abou? eighteen inches from the top of the mass, and. several feet from the road. All the nesting data about to be re- lated is from my hmne in Alameda and recorded from a radius of less than 40o yards. From ?886 to about [892 I found annually an average of eight. sets and a few nests containing young... There were then approximately nine pails of birds and many sets were second sets of the same seasore At that time the nests were placed on the ground with very rare exceptions, but owing to an army of eats that had be- come self supporting there were in ?898 only seven pairs of Oregon Towhees on the premises and nearly all the nests for the last five or six years were placed off the ground, especially on clumps of prickly wild blackberry vines. Having freed the premises from the eats by late spring, the Oregon Towhees began to build more on the ground, also the Cal- ifornia Partridges commenced to resume their choice nesting sites. The Oregon Towhees' usual nesting sit.e is under a small wild blackberry ,vine growing among the grass, or under low growths of these.vines, always more or less in the shade of a tree. Occasionally under