MIMIC THRUSHES 



185 



dition.s alniust unendurable fur human beings 

 the Thrasher may be both seen and heard. 



The bird's distinguishing physical character- 

 istics are its remarkable speed and skill in run- 

 ning, and its willingness to trust to its legs, rather 

 than to its wings, to take it out of danger. In 

 this peculiarity it is excelled only by the famous 

 Road-runner. The Thrasher will easily keep 

 ahead of a rapidly trotting horse, and if winged 

 by a shot is pretty likely to escape from a man 

 on foot ; for, besides its speed, it can dodge with 

 the quickness of a cat, and it is very clever at 

 taking advantage of any cover. When forced 

 actually to take to its wings, it is likely to fly low 



through the brush, keeping out of plain sight 

 until it makes a Shrike-like sweep upward to the 

 top of a bush, whence it can see its pursuer. 



Though the song includes more metallic and 

 fewer liquid notes than that of the Mockingbird, 

 which it otherwise resembles somewhat, it is a 

 very beautiful effort. The notes are astonish- 

 ingly loud and resonant, and almost the entire 

 song may sometimes be heard at a distance of 

 nearly a mile. In the dead of night, when the 

 desert lies in tomb-like silence under the wonder- 

 fully brilliant stars, the nocturne of this great 

 singer is one of the most beautiful and inspiring 

 of Nature's utterances. 



CRISSAL THRASHER 



Toxostoma crissale Hcnr\ 



General Description. — Length, 12 inches. Upper 

 parts, grayish-brown; under parts, white, grayish- 

 brown, and reddish. Bill, about length of head, curved 

 downward at the end ; w'ings, rather short and rounded ; 

 tail, decidedly longer than wing and rounded. 



Color. — Above, plain grayish-brown, the tail slightly 

 darker, tipped with paler and more bufify-brown ; under 

 parts, similar but paler and slightly more buffy, pass- 

 ing into dull white on throat and chin and into cinna- 

 mon-rujous on rear flanks, anal region, and under tail- 

 covcrts; region below eye and forward part of sides of 

 head, dull whitish, the feathers margined with dusky; 

 rear of same, light grayish-brown streaked with whit- 



ish; cheeks, dull whitish, the feathers sometimes nar- 

 rowly tipped with dusky ; chin and throat, margined 

 laterally by a distinct narrow stripe of dusky; bill, 

 dull black, and long and greatly curved; iris, brown. 



Nest and Eggs. — Xest : In bushes near ground ; 

 large, loosely constructed of coarse twigs, lined with 

 vegetable fibers, coarse grass, small twigs, and a few 

 rootlets. Eggs : Usually 3, plain pale bluish-green. 



Distribution. — Deserts of southwestern United 

 States and Me.xico ; breeds from southern Nevada and 

 southern Utah south to northern Lower California, and 

 Mexico and from southeastern California to western 

 Te.xas. 



The Crissal Thrasher may, as a rule, be 

 distinguished from Bendire's and Palmer's 

 Thrashers by its long, curved bill and the whitish 

 color of the throat bordered by a darker streak. 

 This bird gets its name from the under tail- 

 coverts, which are a rich chestnut color. 



Different species of birds sometimes hold to a 

 type locality, so that even if dress or song are 

 somewhat alike, one may get a very fair indica- 

 tion of the bird itself from the place where it 

 hunts and lives. While around Tucson, I found 

 the Crissal Thrasher very shy, yet my experience 

 was that it almost always stayed along the creek 

 or river bottoms in the thick brush. The other 



Thrashers about Tucson, Bendire's and Palmer's, 

 as a rule were seen out in the open desert living 

 in the cactus. 



I got another indication of the shyness of the 

 Crissal Thrasher in trying to get a photograph 

 of the bird at the nest. We succeeded in getting 

 pictures of the nest and eggs and the yoimg 

 birds, but even though we hid the camera in a 

 very careful way nearby, we could never get 

 either of the parents to come close enough for a 

 snap. The eggs are easily distinguished from 

 those of the two other Thrashers mentioned 

 .above, because they are pale bluish-green without 

 spots. William L. Finley. 



