428 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



tlirasher is from the notebook of Robert Ridgway, dated April 9, 

 1868, at Carson City, Nev. Dr. Elliott Coues (1878) quotes from it 

 as follows : "The Sage Thrasher is now one of the most common birds 

 in this vicinity. To-day a great many were noticed among the brush- 

 heaps in the city cemetery. Its manners during the pairing season are 

 peculiar. The males, as they flew before us, were observed to keep 

 up a peculiar tremor or fluttering of the wings, warbling as they flew, 

 and upon alighting (generally upon the fence or a bush), raised the 

 wings over the back, with elbows together, quivering with joy as 

 they sang." 



Ralph Hoffmann (1927) gives this slightly different account of it: 

 "In April and May when the birds are mating, the male Thrasher 

 gives vent to his ardor, not by mounting in the air like many ground 

 birds, but by flying in a somewhat clownish zigzag low over the sage. 

 At the end of this flight the bird lights with wings upraised and flut- 

 ters them for an instant." 



Nesting. — Mr. Ridgway's notes contain the first description of the 

 nest of this thrasher that I can find. The sagebushes in the cemetery 

 had been pulled up and piled in a heap ; one of the nests was so well 

 hidden in one of these brush heaps that much of it had to be removed 

 before the nest could be seen. Other nests were found in sagebushes 

 on the open plain, but also well concealed. 



An early description of an interesting nest is given by Henry W. 

 Henshaw (1875) : 



Its nest, a bulky and inartistic structure of coarse twigs, lined with grasses 

 and fine rootlets, is sometimes placed in a sage shrub ; but more often the bird 

 selects one of the higher bushes, which, armed with sharp, stiff thorns, serves 

 as an admirably secure platform for the clumsy nest, and affords additional 

 security from its winged and four-footed enemies. A nest, which I examined 

 near Fort Garland, was thus placed, and some 8 inches above it was a device, 

 which, though it may have been the result of mere accident, certainly seemed 

 to me to bear in the method of its construction, the evidences of design, and, 

 if the supposition be true, would argue for the designers no small degree of 

 intelligence. This was a platform of twigs, so placed as to screen the setting 

 bird from the rays of the almost tropical sun. The material of which it was 

 composed was precisely similar to that used in the construction of the nest, 

 and it had been made at about the same time. 



Mrs. Bailey (1928) says that, in New Mexico, the nest may be on 

 the ground or in low bushes, "especially sagebrush ; bulky, made largely 

 of coarse plant stems, twigs of sagebrush and greasewood, dry sage 

 shreds and sage bark ; lined with fine rootlets and sometimes hair and 

 fur." 



In southwestern Colorado, M. French Gilman (1907) found six 

 nests, four of which were in sage and two in greasewood bushes, all 

 2 to 2^2 feet from the ground. One of these had "a distinct arch or 

 platform of dry twigs just above it." This was probably similar to 



