174 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



MIMIC THRUSHES 



Order Passcrcs: suborder Osciiics; family Mtmidce 



|HIS exclusively American grouj), in habits and general appearance resembling 

 the true Thrushes and Wrens, are all songsters of greater or less merit. Many 

 of them are preeminent as vocalists, while some of the genus Mhnus are the 

 most brilliant and remarkable vocalists of all birds. This applies especially 

 to the Mockingbirds, though several of the Thrashers are singers of only a 

 little less versatility and charm. 



Speaking generally, the members of the family have slender bills, exceed- 

 ingly variable in shape and relative length, sometimes only half as long, 

 sometimes longer, than the head; usually slightly decurved terminally, some- 

 times conspicuously so; often straight or very nearly so. The wing is variable 

 as to relative length, but is always more or less rounded, and the tail is also 

 variable, but is never distinctly shorter than the distance from the bend of the wing to the 

 tip of the longest secondaries; usually about as long as the wing or sometimes much longer, 

 always more or less rounded. 



This family is now considered scientifically distinct from both the Wrens and the true 

 Thrushes. The Mockingbirds seem to be most nearly related to the Thrushes and evidently 

 occupy an intermediate place between them and the Wrens. Externally the Mockingbirds 

 differ from the Thrushes in their shorter, more rounded wings, and in various anatomical 

 details. The family is most numerously represented, both as to genera and species, in 

 Mexico. Only two of the fourteen genera occur in South America, which has but one genus 

 not found elsewhere. Altogether about fifty species and sub-species and fourteen genera 

 are found. 



In coloration the Thrashers have the upper parts plain rufous, brown, or gray, with 

 or without whitish wing bands; under parts buff, whitish, pale brownish, or pale grayish, 

 with or without darker streaks or spots; the lateral tail-feathers with or without white or 

 whitish tips. They build nests open above, composed of twigs and the like, lined with 

 fine rootlets or similar materials, placed in dense (often thorny) shrubs, small trees, or 

 vine-growths, sometimes in brush piles or on ground. The eggs (from 3 to 5) are usually 

 speckled, sometimes plain light greenish-blue. 



The Mockingbirds are gray or grayish-brown above, with or without darker streaks, 

 the wings with two whitish or pale grayish bands and whitish or pale grayish edgings, the 

 lateral tail-feathers with more or less white; under parts dull whitish, with or without streaks 

 on flanks. The young have the breast conspicuously speckled or spotted with dusky. 

 As far as is known the nest of the Mockingbird is open above, rather bulky, and is 

 placed in dense shrubs, small trees, or thick vine-growth. The eggs (from 3 to 5) are pale 

 greenish or whitish, speckled or spotted with brown. 



SAGE THRASHER 

 Oreoscoptes montanus ( J . K . Townscnd) 



\ (> r, Numlier yoj 



Other Name. — Sage Thrush. 



General Description. — Leiigtli. cS inches. Upper 

 parts, grayish-brown ; under parts, buffy-whito. with 

 dark streaks. Bill, much shorter than head and 

 slender; wings, long and pointed; tail, shorter than 

 wing, slightly rounded. 



Color. — Above, light grayish-brown, with very indis- 



tinct streaks ; wings and tail, darker grayish-brown, 

 with pale grayish-brown edgings ; middle and greater 

 wing-coverts, narrowly tipped with dull white, produc- 

 ing two narrow bands ; outermost primaries, narrowly 

 edged with white; inner webs of three or four outcr- 

 iiinst tail-fcatlwrs tipped ivith U'hili\ this about three- 

 fourths of an inch in extent on lateral feathers, greatly 



