432 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



ground, disappearing among the bushes and perhaps showing itself 

 again on some distant bushtop. 



On its breeding grounds it is rather shy and often difficult to ap- 

 proach, but it is tame enough about the ranches and gardens, where 

 it comes in summer and fall in search of berries and grapes and where 

 it is fairly bold and fearless. Mr. Potter writes to me from Saskatche- 

 wan : "The sage thrasher, according to the books, is a shy bird, but I 

 have found it, like the brown thrasher, a mixture of shyness and bold- 

 ne.ss, or rather confidence. In 1937 I watched a thrasher singing on 

 the top branch of a dead willow, about 10 feet from the ground. I stole 

 up by degrees in full view until I was hardly 20 feet away and stood 

 there watching it for some time." 



Cottam, Williams, and Sooter (1942) timed the flight speed of the 

 sage thrasher in Oregon and Utah by comparing it with the speed of 

 an automobile; their four records showed speeds of 22, 25, 28, and 

 29 miles an hour. 



Voice. — To appreciate fully the song of the sage thrasher, the poet 

 of the lonesome .sagebrush plain, one should visit him in his haunts 

 in the gray of early dawn, before the chilly mists of night have lifted 

 from the sea of gray-green billows that clothe the mesa farther than 

 one can see in the still dim light of the coming day. As the veil lifts 

 with the rising sun, the mists roll away, the shadowy bushes take defi- 

 nite form, the vast plain is .spread out before us in all its soft colors, 

 and, scarcely visible in the distance, a gray-brown bird mounts to the 

 top of a tall sage and pours out a flood of glorious music, a morning 

 hymn of joy and thanksgiving for the coming warmth of day. It may 

 not be the finest bird song that we have ever heard, perhaps not equal 

 to that of the mockingbird, or even that of some other thrashers, but in 

 the solitude of such drab .surroundings it is soul-filling, satisfying, and 

 inspiring. 



In pure sweetness of tone the song is fully equal to that of the mock- 

 ingbird ; it is full of melody and tenderness. It is suggestive of the 

 song of the solitaire, but is more like that of the brown thrasher, with 

 the frequent repetition of the phrases but without the pauses between 

 them. Like this thrasher, it sings from the top of some prominent 

 perch, with head raised and tail hanging downward. But its song is 

 really its own and quite unique. 



Laurence B. Potter writes to me : "The song of the sage thrasher is 

 of the highest quality and, like that of the European skylark, is uttered 

 without break or periods, a.s the brown thrasher. I have timed the 

 song with my watch and have known it to continue 2i/2 minutes at a 

 stretch. The sage thrasher also sings in flight in the manner of the 

 western meadowlark." 



Dr. Wetmore (1920) describes the song very well as follows: "At 

 its beginning the song is somewhat like that of a grosbeak. As the 



