FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] previous Virginia records Green-tailed towhee

["Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Previous Virginia records for Green-tailed Towhee:

January 26, 1908 specimen. John B. Lewis captured a male of this species at
his home, one mile west of Bower's Hill, Norfolk County, which was subsequently 
sent to G.C. Embody
of Ashland, VA for identification. The bird was first discovered by Lewis' 
fourteen year old son,
and was in company with White-throated Sparrows, in a thicket along the edge of 
an open field, and 
Lewis stated that its actions resembled very closely those of the sparrows. 
Bower's
Hill is about seven miles southwest of Portsmouth, and within a mile of the 
border of the Dismal Swamp.
The specimen, although in very poor condition when received, was immediately 
preserved and 
placed in Embody's collection.  The specimen was later placed in the Biological 
Survey Collection
in Washington.  (The Auk,  Volume 25, Number 2,  April, 1908 and Murray, 1952).

April 7-11, 1953  one bird at Amelia, Va. which is 30 miles SW of Richmond, 
along US 360. (The Raven,
Vol. 24:61).

February 26-1953 to April 22, 1953 one bird at Newport News, VA  about 90 miles 
ESE of Amelia.

Some believe the bird at Amelia and the bird at Newport News are records of the 
same individual.
If the Newport News bird was present from February 26 to April 22, then how 
would we account for
the bird also being reported April 7-11 at Amelia, 90 miles away, during the 
same time period ?

Let's go birding.....

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN