274 



LAND BIRDS 



M'Ai 



his favorite haunts, and from the top of this stunted, 



grayish green vegetation, 

 he peals out the earliest 

 greeting to the day. So 

 loud and so enthusi- 

 astic is his song that 

 it can be heard nearly 

 half a mile away. As 

 the sun rises and the air 

 grows hotter his music 

 ceases, and he skulks 

 among the sagebrush 

 until evening, when he 

 sings again, sometimes far 

 : into the night. If you 

 have camped in this 

 dreary waste with the marvel- 

 lously bright stars overhead 

 and the silence of the desert 

 around you like a tomb, the 

 song of the Leconte Thrasher, 

 breaking the mysterious still- 

 ness, has seemed the sweet- 

 est music ever heard by mortal ears. 



711. Leconte The ash ek. 



"He loves the barrenness of the 

 desert. ^^ 



712. CRISSAL THRASHER. — Too'ostoma crissale. 

 Family : The Wrens, Thrashers, etc. 



Length: 11.40-12.60. 



Adults: Bill long, sharply curved; upper parts plain grayish brown, 

 the tail darker and faintly tipped with rufous ; under parts dark fawn 

 or grayish ; the chin and throat nearly white ; under tail-coverts 



