Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Contributed by Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley.
| www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Transcription
Kernville, Kern Co., Calif. to Lancaster, Los Angeles Co., Calif.
Dec. 19, 1948.
Left Kernville, & drove to Hot Hot Springs, but
Saw no Towhees. Turned back, & drove East.
Saw first Towhees 2 1/2 min. east of Weldon, where
I collected one. Saw several others between
this point and 2 1/2 min. E of Onyx. Collected a
total of 5. Saw about fifteen. These birds are
really wild, and all were taken with 1/2 loads.
Their call note is a very feeble "tsif", much
weaker and less penetrating than the metallic
"chink" of Aetulanus. The road is bordered
on the north by fenced in cattle pastures, with
occasional small stands of roadside Cottonwoods.
To the south it is bordered by unfenced,
steep, & very rocky hillsides, sparsely covered
by shrubs. Towhees were seen mainly where
cottonwoods by the roadside lay opposite the
rocky hillsides, the birds moving up the
hillsides from rock to rock, & bush to bush,
and flying from the hillside to the trees. Dense
roadside willow thickets were blank for
Towhees. Two were seen on fenceposts right
in the middle of Onyx, where I couldn't
Shoot. Birds were mostly in pairs, but
2 1/2 min E of Onyx a loose group of about six
were seen, & three collected. These birds don't
fly in long jumps, but by several short