444 WRENS, THRASHERS, ETC. 



Bemarks. — The pale grayish coloration and the black crescent on the 

 tail are good field characters. 



Distribution. — From British Columbia south to Lower California and to 

 Chiapas, Mexico ; from western Nebraska to the Pacific ; breeds through- 

 out its range and is resident from about the southern border of the United 

 States southward. 



Nest. — Usually in clefts or crevices among rocks, sometimes in hollow 

 stumps or about buildings. Eggs : 7 or 8, white, finely spotted on or 

 around larger end with chestnut brown. 



Salpinctes f To the worker in the arid regions of the west this 

 name calls up most grateful memories. On the wind-blown rocky 

 stretches wliere you seem in a bleak world of granite or lava with 

 only rock, rock, everywhere, suddenly, there on a stone before you, 

 stands this jolly little wren, looking up at you with a bob and a shy, 

 friendly glance. The encounter is as cheering as the sight of a bird 

 at sea, and before such meetings have been repeated many times, you 

 love the little wren as you do the barking conies that give life and a 

 touch of companionship to the barren rock slides of the mountains. 



Even his song, which at first hearing seems the drollest, most un- 

 bird-like of machine-made tinklings, comes to be greeted as the 

 voice of a friend on the desert, and its quality to seem in harmony 

 with the hard, gritty granites among which he lives. Its phrases are 

 varied, but one of its commonest — given perhaps from the top of a 

 cliff while his mate is feeding their brood on a ledge below — is little 

 more than a harsh kra-wee, kra-icee, kra-icee, kra-tcee, given slowly 

 at first, then after a little bob repeated in faster time. 



As you watch him he seems well fitted to escape his enemies who 

 soar over the mountains, for he is a perfect rock color, and his only 

 striking mark is the black fan-shaped band that flashea^from his tail 

 as he disappears from view. 



Altitude seems to make little difference with him if the conditions 

 of barrenness are met, but he is most commonly found in the moun- 

 tains. Dr. Mearns reported him from the summit of San Francisco 

 Mountain, Arizona, at a time when the hollows were filled with ice 

 and snow and fierce storms were raging. 



GENUS CATHEKPES. 



General Characters. — Bill about as long as head, longer than tarsus ; 

 side toes of unequal lengths ; wing longer than tail. 



KEY TO ADULTS. 



1. Darker colored. Lower Rio Grande albifrons, p. 445. 



1'. Lighter colored. 



2. Larger, bill longer, spotting on back not so thick. Great Basin and 



Rocky Mountain region conspersus, p. 445. 



2'. Smaller, bill shorter, spotting on back thicker. Oregon and Cali- 

 fornia west of Cascades and Sierra Nevada . punctulatus, p. 446. 



