VOL. III.] Habits of Palmer'' s Thrasher. 245 



evening, perched on the topmost branch of a cholla, he is always in 

 tune, and while his notes may perhaps be less varied than his more 

 favored kinsman, it is none the less bold and commanding, and but 

 for the ubiquity of his rival in song would be in demand as a cage 

 bird. 



Southern Arizona, notwithstanding its great mountain chains, if 

 viewed from an elevated position, presents the appearance of a vast 

 plain that ends only where the horizon seems to touch the earth, 

 with here and there a mountain range small in comparison with the 

 surrounding plain, set down upon it. Between the mountains lie 

 immense mesas and valleys, as a whole, timberless and waterless, 

 but covered with nutritious grasses, great cacti belts and other 

 vegetation of curious growth. Here, then, is the home of the palm- 

 eri, and in the cholla, beset with countless spines, it builds its nest 

 and rears its young. This class of cacti, of which the foregoing cut 

 gives but a faint conception of its terrors, is virtually impenetrable 

 to man and beast. Ten million of cambric needles, set on hundreds 

 of loosely jointed spindles, woven so closely together as to appar- 

 ently defy the penetration of a body however small, but the thrashers 

 go in and out and up and through them with the ease of water 

 running through a sieve. In some convenient fork, on a limb 

 against the bole of the bush, or in a cavity formed by the pendent 

 stems of the plant, the nest is most commonly built. All the spines 

 in the vicinity of the nest are pulled off for the better protection of 

 the young. This does not, however, always save them as I have 

 found them once in a while, tangled and dead in the terrible burs. 



The external nest of the Palmer's thrasher is made of thorn twigs 

 avergaing in length about eight or nine inches, seldom shorter but fre- 

 quently much longer. Almost invariably they are lined with a 

 species of wire grass, but sometimes thay go astray and use other 

 material. In external depth the nests vary according to the whims 

 of the bird and the requirements of the site chosen, but generally 

 they average Irom seven to ten inches. The inner cavity at its 

 greatest width near the top measures from four to four and one-half 

 inches, bottom one-half an inch to an inch narrower, rounded or 

 flat, and from three to three and one-half inches d«ep. However 

 sparsely the walls of the nest may be lined, the bottom is always 

 thickly padded with dried grass into which the eggs frequently sink 

 one-half their depth, and in this condition hatch. There are, of 



