CALIFORNIA THBASHEE 549 



and feet to best advantage, dodging this way or that beneath and around 

 the bushes. 



The song of the thrasher is the antithesis of a set utterance, such, for 

 example, as that of the Yellow "Warbler. It is extremely varied as to 

 quality of the notes, and as to timing and manner of rendering. The bird 

 has, to be sure, certain stock syllables, but these are put together in such 

 variety that no two songs seem quite the same. The individual notes are 

 mostly throaty, sometimes deep and rich, sometimes chuckling, occasionally 

 like short whistles, all subject to modulation. The song recalls that of 

 the mockingbird, but the thrasher is not nearly so much of a mimic and 

 its notes are mellower and more subdued. The singing is most voluble 

 in the spring months. Early morning and evening are the times most 

 favored for singing, although on cloudy days the birds continue to sing 

 until mid-day. For singing, the male mounts to a perch ten to twenty-five 

 feet above the ground. An oak or elderberry bush rising well above the 

 general level of the brush affords a suitable location. From there the 

 thrasher's voice will travel well out over the adjacent territory ; from there, 

 at the same time, the bird is ready to drop to cover and safety at an 

 instant's warning. Near Coulterville a thrasher was observed in song 

 while perched just below the topmost branchlets of a 50-foot digger pine. 

 But this was an exceptionally high position. Pairs are spaced out so 

 widely from one another that it is not common to hear more than one male 

 from one place. Yet near Blacks Creek two thrashers were singing in 

 brush on opposite sides of the road and not 50 feet apart. 



Thrashers are strictly resident. Hence, once the headquarters of a 

 pair are determined, the observer may visit the place at any time of year 

 and count on finding the birds there. Probably if one of a pair is lost 

 the survivor soon gains a new mate, so that occupancy of the area is 

 continued without interruption. The species is nowhere abundant; per- 

 haps one or two pairs to a quarter section of cover is a fair average. 



Near Pleasant Valley, on May 30, 1915, a California Thrasher was 

 followed about and its regular beat determined. This bird, located a 

 few days earlier by his singing, and his mate, lived on a rather open, south- 

 facing rolling slope, sparsely set with blue oaks, a few digger pines, and 

 many large old clumps of wedge-leafed ceanothus (Ccanothus cuneatus). 

 These brush clumps in places grew so close together as to form patches a 

 hundred feet or so across, and their very dense system of interlacing 

 branches made an overhead cover with open spaces beneath — an effective 

 shelter for the thrashers. 



Two nests of the California Thrasher were found near Coulterville 

 in 1919. On May 10 a nest was discovered on a gentle hill slope covered 

 with a nearly pure stand of greasewood. It rested on a mass of slanting 



