412 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the Colorado River above Fort Mojave. * * * The fifth specimen 

 was taken by Mr. F. Stephens, on February 21, 1880, in central 

 Arizona." 



Thus, in a period of nearly 30 years after its discovery, only five 

 specimens were collected ! During the next 5 years much hard work 

 on the part of Mr. Stephens, Dr. Mearns, and others brought the 

 total number of specimens up to about two dozen. During that time 

 and since then much has been learned about its habits and distribution, 

 and much has been written about its elusiveness and the difficulty of 

 collecting it. 



LeConte's thrasher lives mainly in the lowest, barrenest, and hot- 

 test desert plains and valleys of southwestern Arizona and southeast- 

 ern California, where, according to Frank Stephens (1884), "the ther- 

 mometer gets to 100° in the shade in April, and even to 130° in July 

 and August." The sun beats down with torrid fury on the white sand ; 

 the climate is so excessively dry that it is dangerous to travel without a 

 good supply of water ; and one's mouth, throat, and nostrils soon be- 

 come uncomfortably dry and parched, as the terrific heat dries up all 

 the natural moisture in the body. Then, too, I found that the ground 

 was so hot that the soles of my feet became blistered and pealed, if 

 I wore thin shoes. 



Dr. C. Hart Merriam (1895) describes this desert region very well 

 as follows : 



The great Colorado River, emerging from the marvellous canons of northern 

 Arizona, bends southward to traverse a vast, inhospitable desert, parts of which, 

 below the level of the sea, surpass the deserts of India, Arabia, and even the great 

 Sahara in heat, aridity and desolation. * * * 



These deserts receive little water: the rainfall is meagre, the streams from the 

 surrounding mountains soon disappear in the hot sands, and the broad Colorado 

 itself hurries on to the sea as if in a conduit, without imparting verdure to even 

 its immediate banks save in a few favored spots. The vegetation is scanty and 

 peculiar : the sandy gravel slopes are covered with the i*esinous Larrea or creosote 

 bush, more or less mixed with cactuses, yuccas, daleas, ephedras and other desert 

 forms, while the alkaline and saline clay soils are dotted here and there with 

 greasewoods and fleshy saline plants. 



Near the Gila River Dr. Mearns (1886) found that the desert "coun- 

 try was bare of grass, sandy, and covered with scattered sagebrush 

 and cacti {Ojnmtia^ Echinocereus, Gereus^ and Echinocactus) , with oc- 

 casional bare areas of white sand, where the sun's reflection was 

 terrible." 



I made my acquaintance with LeConte's thrasher on the Mojave 

 Desert in southeastern California, where it seems to be as abundant 

 as anywhere. Driving out eastward from Victorville, we passed 

 through the rocky ramparts of Deadman's Point, among the pictur- 

 esque Joshua-trees, or tree yuccas, of that section, onto the broad 

 level plain of the desert, bordered on the north by numerous rough. 



