vou. u.] — Habits of Palmer's Thrasher. - ag 
' red shales of Snow Mountain, Lake County, in flower and young 
fruit. 
In habit this species is strikingly like the narrower - leaved forms 
of the monotypic genus Zauschneria, and in conjunction with such 
species as £. paniculatum and £. obcordatum, make that genus un- 
tenable, there being no longer any definable and constant differ- 
ence, however trivial, which can be used to separate them. 
- THE HABITS AND NESTING OF PALMER’S THRASHER. 
(Harporhynchus curvirostris palmert. ) 
BY HERBERT BROWN. 
In offering these notes on the habits and nesting of Palmer’s and 
Bendire’s thrashers, I question much if I can say anything new in 
regard to the former, inasmuch as it has long been under the ob- 
servation of experienced naturalists. The bird isa common resident 
of this portion of the Territory, and a notable feature of feathered 
life in every cactus belt in Southern Arizona. Some years since, I 
purchased a partial albino.* I first saw it as a fledgling at a ranch 
about forty-five miles west of Tucson, to which place the writer had 
gone as one of a rescuing party; the sheriff of the county, while 
endeavoring to arrest an Indian horsethief, had fallen into ambush 
and was himself a captive. The bird had been taken from its nest 
under the impression that it was a young mocking-bird. When I 
again saw it some six months later, it was fully grown, and appar- 
_ *In general appearance it resembled H.c. palmeri. Poise and shape of head, length 
and curve of mandibles, bold, bright yellowish gray eye and movements those of 
palmeri, but the white markings gave it somewhat of a resemblance to 47. poly- 
glottos. If approached by a stranger when caged, it would ruffle its feathers, 
o its owner, a young 
open its tail like a fan and peck viciously at the hand, but t 
fellow, whose both arms had been broken by an Apache bullet, it was all love and 
affection. The first, fifth and ninth primary in the left wing were white, sixth, 
seventh and eighth brownish gray, secondaries ashy gray, tertiaries white, stems of 
all white feathers black. Right wing, first and fifth primaries white, sixth brown- 
ish gray, secondaries first two white, the next four brownish gray, tertiaries first 
brown, second brown and white, third white, upper half of greater coverts white; 
_ eighth, nine and tenth all white. Tail—eleven rectrices entirely white, barred with | 
* faint waving lines of a darker color. Back, head and breast ashy gray, throat and 
abdomen white, upper mandible black, lower mandible from base to angle of gonys, © 
white. 
