Western Bird Guide: Birds of the Rockies and West to the Pacific

by Charles K. Reed

OREGON TOWHEE.

588b. Pipilo maculatus oregonus. 8 inches.

This family are all ground birds, and are usually found scratching among the leaves for their food supply of seeds and insects. This is a much darker bird than his eastern relative. The females are marked much the same as the males, replacing the black with a brown. They build their nest on or near the ground, of twigs, grass and with a finer lining of grass, and usually it is well concealed in bunches of grass or under some brush pile. They lay four or five eggs of a pale gray or white, much spotted with brown (.95 × .75).

SAN DIEGO TOWHEE.

588d. Pipilo maculatus megolonyx. 8 inches.

Darker and with few white markings. Southern California (not illustrated).

CANON TOWHEE.

591. Pipilo fuscus mesoleucus. 8½ inches.

These birds have more brown, and nest in bushes or trees and not so much on the ground. Their eggs are more strongly marked. They range from Colorado to Texas and Arizona.