THE OOLOGIST 



99 



condition, and without a doubt the best 

 game bird in this country. They feed then 

 ahnost exchisively on wild berries, of which 

 they find an abundance, preferring a species 

 of wild gooseberry, but eat service, thimble 

 and salmon-berries, wild currants and cher- 

 ries, with an occasional cricket or grass- 

 hopper, and now and then a few tender tops 

 of plants. The full complement of eggs is 

 from eight to ten. These vary considera- 

 bly in size, shape and color. In some the 

 ground color might be called a creamy 

 white, in others it is a pale, and again a 

 very deep buff'. The eggs are evenly spot- 

 ted with specks of reddish brown, and none 

 of these larger than an ordinary sized pin 

 liead. Their shape is an enlongated oval, 

 and they measure as. follows, each egg out 

 of different nests : 1.99 x 1.30, 2.02x1.33, 

 1.84x1.35, 1.90x1.30, 1.86x1.40 and 

 1.80 X 1.23. Considering the size of the 

 bird their eggs are very small. They com- 

 mence laying about May 1. Their nests 

 are always on the ground, generally close 

 to, or mider a fallen tree, occasionally in a 

 cavity of a burnt and fallen log, and also in 

 the open air without any cover whatever. 

 I found such a nest on June 7, 1876, near 

 the summit of the Canyon City mountain. 

 It was placed in perfectly open ground about 

 two feet from the roots of a young fir tree, 

 and contained nine eggs on the point of 

 hatching, all being chipped already. The 

 eggs were laid on the bare ground, a few 

 feathers of the bird and a little dry grass 

 being placed around the edges of the nest. 

 I liave several times flushed quite young 

 birds and noticed how quickly they hide 

 themselves, even where there is little to con- 

 ceal them. The young can soon fly, even 

 when not larger than a man's fist. The 

 love notes of the male, called here hooting, 

 in the early spring, are very peculiar and 

 hard to describe. 



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Le Conte's Thrasher (Harporhyn- 

 chus lecontii). 



T E CONTE'S Thrasher still bears oflf the 

 ^~* palm for rarity, even in competition with 

 the newly-found H. hendiri. Though it has 

 been known for about a quarter of a cen- 

 tury, only three or four specimens have 

 come to hand. The original was taken at 

 Fort Yuma, at the junction of the Gila with 

 the Colorado. Dr. J. G. Cooper states 

 that he secured two near Fort Mnjave, along 

 the route in the Colorado Valley on the San 

 Bernardino Mountains, where, however, he 

 found them "rather common" in thickets 

 of low bushes. He discovered an empty 

 nest built in a yucca, like that of H. redivi- 

 vus. In September, 1865, I had the pleas- 

 ure of meeting with the bird myself, about 

 fifteen miles east of the Colorado River, at 

 a point a little above Fort Mojave, and I 

 managed, not without difficulty, to secure 

 a single individual. It was in excellent 

 plumage, and, having been killed with a 

 touch of fine shot and preserved with spe- 

 cial care, made a very fine specimen. We 

 had come through the " Union Pass" of a 

 low range of mountains, or high line of 

 bluifs, which flank the eastern bank of the 

 river, and were preparing to make a " dry 

 camp" in a sterile, cactus-ridden plain, 

 which stretches across toward the broken 

 ground where Beale's Springs are situated, 

 when, in the dusk of the evening, this sin- 

 gular whitish-looking bird caught my eye. 

 Though I was not at the moment in an en- 

 thusiastic frame of mind respecting ornith- 

 ology, the siglit was enough to arouse what 

 little energy a hard day's march had not 

 knocked out of me, and I started on what 

 came near being a wild-goose chase after 

 the coveted prize. It is bad enough to play 

 the jack-rabbit among Arizona cactuses in 

 broad daylight, and to be obliged to skip 

 about in the uncertain glimmering of the 

 evening is discouraging in the extreme. My 

 bird had the best of it for awhile, and seem- 

 ed to enjoy the sport, as it fluttered from one 

 cactus bush to another, with the desultory 

 yet rapid flight that is so confusing, and 



