414 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



was firmly imbedded a thick mass of the flower chisters of a fine, gray, 

 woolly plant that grew abundantly on the surrounding desert; this 

 formed the lining of the nest proper and made a soft bed for the eggs 

 or young; this silvery gray lining was charcteristic of all the nests, 

 distinguishing them from the nests of all other desert birds, at least 

 in that locality. The nests were easy to find, as they were generally 

 in isolated chollas, and it was only necessary to drive over the smooth 

 desert floor, in and out among the small, scattered creosote bushes, and 

 look at each likely looking cholla. The chollas were not large speci- 

 mens, and the nests averaged about 3 feet above ground. We saw a 

 number of old nests, which in that dry climate persist for several 

 years, though the soft lining rots and becomes a sodden mass. 



The nesting habits and the nests of LeConte's thrasher are somewhat 

 different in other localities. As already stated, we found the old nests 

 in sage bushes on the more arid plains of Kern County and the upper 

 San Joaquin Valley in California. G. Holterhoff, Jr., was the first 

 man to discover a nest of this thrasher, or at least the first to publish 

 an account of it. He published a brief account of it in the American 

 Naturalist for March 1881, and the following fuller account in the 

 Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club (1883). The nest was 

 found near Flowing Wells, in the heart of the Colorado Desert. 



The country thereabout is a barren, sandy desert, broken by an occasional 

 dry arroyo or river bed, scarce worthy of the name, as they are only rivers when 

 bearing off the deluge from some fortuitous cloud-burst. Scattered sparingly 

 along the course of these fickle streams is a stunted growth of mesquite and 

 palo-verde trees. ♦ ♦ * [The nest was in a thick palo-verde tree.] The nest, 

 situated about 5 feet from the ground, was a very bulky affair, set so loosely and 

 carelessly amid the branches that a considerable foundation had been thrown 

 together before the structure was firm enough to bear the nest proper. This was 

 composed of the thorny sticks and twigs of mesquite, loosely intercrossed, and 

 the interior rather neatly lined with reddish fibres and rootlets. The external 

 dimensions were about 9 inches in depth and 6 inches in width at the top; 

 interior, depth 3 inches and width about 4 inches. The cavity was deep enough 

 to conceal the sitting bird, except as to its projecting tail. 



M. French Oilman (1904) says that of 28 nests, found between 

 Banning, Calif., and Salton Sea, "all but 4 were in the cholla cactus, the 

 others being as follows: 1 in a mesquite, 1 in an unidentified desert 

 shrub and 2 in thorn trees, about as bad as the cholla." He continues : 



Climatic variations in the seasons appear to have an effect on the numbers 

 of the birds. In seasons of more than normal rainfall they seem more numerous 

 and nest more than in dry seasons. The spring of 1895 was a very favorable 

 one, the desert enjoying heavy spring rains, and consequently an abnormal 

 growth of vegetation, making the desert wastes a perfect flower garden. The 

 sand hills were covered with desert primroses, acres of country were tinged pink 

 with the sand verbenas or abronias and other acres were flaming with the yellow 

 annual encelias. Insect life fairly swarmed and birds, especially Leconte 

 thrashers and mockingbirds, were more numerous than before or since. I found 

 eight Leconte's nests on one trip near Palm Springs and saw many of the birds. 



