392 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



ten million of cambric needles, set on hundreds of loosely jointed spindles, woven 

 so closelj' together as to apparently 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. * * * 



One nest was built on the ruins of three others and probably represented as 

 many successive broods, and gave the interior of the cholla the appearance of 

 having been solidly filled in with dead sticks. Exterior diameter of the nest 

 20 inches, depth 36 inches, cavity across the top 4^^ inches, bottom 3 inches, depth 

 6 inches, but lined only about 4 inches up with baling rope, hog bristles and 

 grass. * * * In the spring of 1889 I noted several nests made almost en- 

 tirely of flowering weeds. This came from the nature of the vegetation in the 

 immediate vicinity of the cholla belt in which the nests were placed. 



Eggs. — Most Palmer's thrashers' nests contain three eggs, the usual 

 complement, but four are not rare, two are frequent, and sometmies 

 a single ^gg is incubated and hatched. Fourteen of 27 nests examined 

 by Mr. Oilman (1909) contained three eggs each, two had four eggs, 

 and the rest held two or one. There are 21 sets of eggs of this thrasher 

 in the J. P. Norris collection, 15 of three, 5 of four, and 1 of two. 



The eggs vary in shape from ovate to short-ovate or elliptical-ovate, 

 and they are not glossy. There is very little variation in color or 

 markings; the ground color varies from pale bluish green, "dull 

 opaline green," to pale greenish blue, "etain blue," or even to paler 

 shades of these colors. The markings usually consist of minute specks 

 or fine pinpoints of pale brown, "cinnamon-rufous," evenly distributed 

 over the entire egg, but rarely more thickly at the larger end. Still 

 more rarely there are somewhat larger spots of darker brown, such as 

 "burnt umber." There is considerable variation in size; the measure- 

 ments of 40 eggs, in the United States National Museum, average 29.3 

 by 20.2 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 32.5 

 by 20.0, 31.0 by 25.5, 25.9 by 19.8, and 26.4 by 18.3 millimeters, a varia- 

 tion of about seven millimeters, or nearly 25 percent, in both length 

 and breadth. 



Yov/ag. — The period of incubation is said to be about 13 days, and 

 the young remain in the nest 14 to 18 days. The male shares with 

 his mate the duties of incubation and the care of the young ; they are 

 a devoted pair and equally devoted as parents. Almost always two 

 broods, and sometimes three, are raised in a season. If the eggs are 

 taken from a nest, a second set will be laid within about two weeks; 

 and within two or three weeks after the first brood leaves the nest, 

 either the same nest, or another nearby, will be used to start the 

 second brood. Although the nesting season is a long one, it seems 



