396 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



and butter cooler. This was against a window under the porch roof and a pair 

 of Palmers would come and catch the drops of water as they fell. At a post 

 trader's store near Blackwater the Palmer would come into a porch and drink 

 from the drip of an olla or water cooler. Both Palmer and Bendire frequently 

 sing from the tops of Indian homes and sometimes from the school house. * * * 

 This thrasher is a close sitter and when disturbed leaves the nest, but soon returns 

 showing much concern. Both parents usually show up, approaching as near as 

 6 feet and uttering the usual two-syllabled call, tho sometimes using the guttural 

 scolding note. 



Commenting on the fearlessness of these thrashers about his ranch 

 in January, Mr. Stafford (1912) wrote in his notes: "Last night as 

 we sat motionless on the porch one of the Thrashers approached by 

 stages to within 5 feet of us, caught a moth beneath the umbrella trees, 

 flew up into one of the trees just before me, and then to the tap and 

 bent over again and again for the drops of water that collected just 

 within the mouth of the faucet. All of these acts he performed utterly 

 unconscious of us as living and observing creatures." 



He gives an interesting account of their nightly roosting habits in 

 the cholla containing their nest. On January 27, 1912, he wrote in 

 his notes : 



At about sunset, and while it was yet quite fully liglit, I took a small chair 

 and seated myself almost within arm's reach and in full view of the cholla 

 cactus back of the sheds. For 20 minutes nothing appeared save a troop of 

 Desert and Brewer's Sparrows flying by, cheeping, to their roost in the low 

 mesquites. As yet there was no sign of the Thrashers. Suddenly, as the gloom 

 was faintly beginning to gather, one of the birds, without previous warning, 

 arrived from the east and lighted on a fence post near me. I sat motionless, but 

 he evidently i-egarded this unwonted object near his home with suspicion. I felt 

 that he was examining me. Then he uttered, fairly in my ear, a volley of his 

 whip-like whistles, which, after a moment, was loudly answered upon a sudden 

 from the second bird, which seemed to come from the south. The two, thus joined 

 for the night, flew about in the choUas, though not yet to them, singing and 

 purring softly to each other. One sat just beyond a bush in front of me, on the 

 ground, for 10 or more minutes. It was still so light that I contented myself with 

 glances through nearly closed lids. * * * 



At length I heard them enter the chollas close at hand, uttering low notes ; and 

 then silence. I looked and saw one perched crouched, I think on a certain de- 

 spined branch above the nest. The other I could not see. For a half hour the 

 bird sat, facing the sunset, and motionless, and I could see its long curved beak 

 and slim body outlined against the sky. As it grew darker I opened my eyes more 

 freely, and I imagined it regarding me the while. At length it moved, and turned 

 about — I thought it had detected me and was on the point of flight — but instead it 

 slid gently down into the big nest and disappeared in its ample cup. 



On other occasions he noted that "after sunset and before sunrise 

 every day a few sharp whistles from the direction of the chollas an- 

 nounced the roost-going and the waking of the thrashers with precise 

 punctuality." And he concludes by saying : "As far as I can conclude, 

 then, two Palmer's thrashers, having mated for life, select a suitable 

 cholla and build a nest that shall serve indefinitely with such yearly 



