Chapter IX: Section III: Brown; throat without light patch

Pipilo aberti, BAIRD.

ABERT’S TOWHEE.

_Pipilo aberti_, BAIRD, Stansbury’s Rep. Great Salt Lake, Zoölogy,
June, 1852, 325 (New Mexico).—IB. Birds N. Am. 1858, 516, pl.
xxx.—KENNERLY, P. R. R. X, b, pl. xxx.—HEERMANN, X, c,
15.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 244. _Kieneria aberti_, BONAP.
Comptes Rendus, XL, 1855, 356.

[Line drawing: 6748 ♂]

SP. CHAR. General color of upper parts pale brownish yellowish-red; beneath brighter, and more ochraceous, especially on the under coverts, palest on the middle of the belly. Sides of head anterior to eyes, and chin dark brown. Bill and legs yellowish. Length, 9 inches; wing, 3.70; tail, 4.85.

HAB. Base of Rocky Mountains in New Mexico. Valley of Gila and Colorado.

This plainly colored bird is perhaps the largest of the North American Finches, and is without any blotches, spots, or variations of importance from one color, except on the chin and sides of the head. The bill is similar to that of _P. erythrophthalmus_, but the cutting edge is less concave and more sinuated. The tail is more graduated; the claws thicker and stronger. The wings are short and much rounded; the first quill shorter than the secondaries; fifth and fourth longest.

It may be easily distinguished from all the varieties of _fuscus_ by the blackish lores and chin, as well as by the absence of any colored gular area, there being, instead, a pinkish rufous tinge prevalent over the whole throat and jugulum. There are no dusky spots across the throat as in _fuscus_.

HABITS. Dr. Cooper assigns the base of the Rocky Mountains, in New Mexico, and the valleys of the Gila and Colorado Rivers, as the habitat of this species. Dr. Coues speaks of it as one of the most abundant and characteristic birds of those two valleys, and adds that it ranges northward to within a few miles of Fort Whipple, but is not found in the adjacent mountains. It was common at Fort Mohave, and particularly so at Fort Yuma.

Dr. Kennerly met with it at Camp No. 114, New Mexico, February 6, and again at Bill Williams Fork, February 12. He states that while travelling down the Big Sandy Creek and Bill Williams Fork, in the month of February, he found them very abundant. They confined themselves to the thick bushes near the water. Generally two or three were seen together. Their motions were very rapid, and their note was a peculiar, loud, chattering sound, sharp but not disagreeable. After leaving the Great Colorado he did not see it again.

On the borders of the Gila, east of Fort Yuma, Dr. Heermann found this bird in great abundance. It kept in the close sheltered thickets, where, secure from intrusion, it sought among the dead leaves for various seeds and insects and their larvæ, on which it feeds. In its habits it very much resembles the _Pipilo fuscus_, or Cañon Finch, diving into the bushes when alarmed, and repeating, at intervals, a short chirp. After leaving the Gila River he did not meet with any more, as he followed no longer the course of any large stream, for the borders of which these birds seem to have a decided preference.

Dr. Cooper regards this species as the almost exact counterpart of the _Pipilo fuscus_. The only difference he noticed in habits was in the character of its loud note of alarm, remarkably similar, however, to that of two very distinct birds of the same valley, namely, _Centurus uropygialis_ and _Phainopepla nitens_. Like the Cañon Finch, this species is said to live almost constantly on the ground, but appears rather more gregarious, especially in winter.

About the first of April Dr. Cooper met with many of their nests. They were generally built in thorny shrubs, and were composed of a flooring of coarse twigs, or of green herbs, and strongly interwoven with strips of bark, grass, and leaves. One bird had taken advantage of the recent introduction of horses into the valley to obtain a lining of horse-hair for its nest. The eggs were in all cases only three, bluish-white, with brown spots and streaks in a ring near the large end, quite variable in number, and measuring one inch by .70. One of the nests was in a low mesquite-tree, another in a dense cluster of dead twigs hanging from a cottonwood. The time required for hatching was twelve or thirteen days, and in a fortnight more the young left the nest. Dr. Cooper found nests with eggs as late as May 25, and had no doubt that they raise two or more broods in a season. He adds that the song of the male, throughout April and May, is precisely like that of _P. fuscus_, and also reminded him of the notes of _P. oregonus_ and of the eastern Black-throated Bunting (_Euspiza americana_).

Dr. Coues has kindly supplied me with the following interesting sketch of this species, as observed by him in Arizona:—

“This species appears to have a remarkably restricted
geographical distribution. I never saw it at Fort Whipple, but on
the Colorado bottom in the same latitude, and thence along the
river to Fort Yuma, I found it to be one of the most abundant and
characteristic birds of all. At the time I observed it, in
September, it was generally in small flocks, and proved rather
difficult to capture, partly because the dense underbrush it
inhabited was almost impenetrable, and partly on account of its
natural timidity. Everything along the river-bottom is scorched
with the heat, and the dry dead twigs constantly snap at a touch,
with such noise that it is almost impossible to force a passage
through the underbrush without alarming all its inmates. The bird
occurs everywhere along the river-side, but is particularly
numerous on the patches of mesquite, and the extensive areas
grown up to young willows and cottonwoods, and the arrowwood
(_Tessaria borealis_). Its ordinary cry of alarm, if not its
call-note, is a loud, clear chirp, very different from the mewing
sound made under similar circumstances by its congener, the _P.
megalonyx_. The latter, as is well known, is almost exactly like
that of a Catbird. I never heard the song of this bird, which
appears to sing only during the breeding-season, but Dr. Cooper
says it resembles that of the western Black _Pipilos_, and I can
indorse his observation, that this is curiously like the
monotonous notes of the Black-throated Bunting,—_Chip, chip,
chee-chee-chee_; the first two syllables deliberately pronounced,
the others more rapidly enunciated, with greater emphasis. The
associates of this species seem to be few, if indeed they be not
confined to the _P. mesoleucus_, a very near ally. The moult
seems to me unusually protracted, as many September specimens
were still in poor plumage.

“Excepting my experience with this bird on the Colorado, I only
met with it on the Hassayampa, a small stream a few miles from
Fort Whipple, yet in a somewhat different region, across a slight
mountain-ridge, lower and warmer. Two specimens were secured,
adult and young, the first week in August.”

Dr. Coues, on his way from Arizona to the Pacific (Ibis, 1866, p. 261), mentions that he was often startled by the loud, clear, sharp chirp of this bird, which, though fringilline in character, is more than usually powerful, and is its alarm-note. Everywhere in the Colorado Valley this was one of the most characteristic birds. Fort Yuma seemed to be its head-quarters. It is, like all its congeners, a retiring species, and keeps perseveringly in the almost impenetrable undergrowth. It is said to be more decidedly gregarious than most of the genus, often collecting in flocks of a dozen or more, wandering restlessly, yet in a cautious manner, through the thickets.

A nest with eggs, procured at Fort Mohave by Dr. Cooper, is in the Smithsonian Collection (No. 7,276). The egg measures .93 by .70 of an inch, is obovate in shape, being much rounded at the smaller end. Its ground-color is a dull white, without any perceptible tinge of blue,—though possibly bluish when fresh,—with heavy dots and occasional delicate, hair-like, zigzag markings of black. These markings are wholly confined to the larger end. One of the eggs has these markings much finer, consisting of minute dots, more dense, and upon the apex of the larger end. The nest is loosely built and very bulky. Its external diameter is about six inches, and its depth three. The cavity is three inches wide and two deep. It is constructed almost entirely of strips of inner bark, the coarser, ribbon-like pieces being used on the outer portion, and the finer shreds composing the lining. Externally are also a few sticks about one quarter of an inch in diameter.