SENNETT'S THRASHER 375 



It is rather strange that it remained so long unrecognized until Dr. 

 Oberholser (1938) included it as a "rare winter resident" in Louisiana, 

 and Dr. Wetmore (1939) listed it from Tennessee. 



TOXOSTOMA LONGIROSTRE SENNETTI (Ridsrway) 



SENNETT'S THRASHER 



Plate 71 



HABITS 



Sennett's thrasher was once supposed to be a variety of our common 

 brown thrasher, which it superficially resembles, but it is now recog- 

 nized as a northern race of a Mexican species. Its range covers 

 northeastern Mexico, the lower Rio Grande Valley, and as far north 

 along the southern coast of Texas as Nueces County. It differs from 

 our brown thrasher in having the upperparts darker and duller and the 

 sides of the head and neck more grayish. It is somewhat larger than 

 the type race of southeastern Mexico. 



We found this thrasher to be an abundant bird in Hidalgo and 

 Cameron Counties, in southern Texas. It was common in the mesquite 

 and cactus chaparral, but still commoner in the dense forests along 

 the resacas or stagnant watercourses near Brownsville; these forests 

 were made up of some large trees, mesquite, huisache, ebony, pahns, 

 etc., with a thick undergrowth of many shrubs and small trees, such 

 as granjeno, persimmon, coffee bean, and bush morning-glory. 



Nesting. — Dr. Herbert Friedmann (1925) found 25 nests of this 

 thrasher near Brownsville, containing either eggs or young, "pretty 

 evenly scattered through the month" of May. We found a nest there, 

 containing young on May 25, about which the old birds were very 

 solicitous. Two days later. May 27, 1923, in the same dense thickets 

 along a resaca, we found three nests with young and one with three 

 eggs ; all these nests were over 4 feet from the ground, and the last was 

 10 feet up ; the nests were very much like those of our common brown 

 thrasher. 



George B. Sennett (1878), for whom this thrasher was named, 

 found numerous nests in the above region ; he secured a score or more 

 sets of eggs and examined many that he did not take. He writes : "Of 

 those taken, the lowest was 4 feet from the ground and the highest 

 some 8 feet, averaging, I think, 5i/^ feet. I found their nests in a 

 variety of places — prickly-pear cactus, Spanish bayonet, chaparral, 

 and most commonly in the dense undergrowth under the heavier tim- 

 ber. I saw no nest of this bird in an exposed position 'above the upper 

 branches'. Its usual position is in the very heart of the tree or plant 

 selected, and, like most of the nests of this region, not capable of being 

 detached from the thorny bushes without falling to pieces." He was 

 unable to detect any difference in position or structure between the 



