TURDIDJ5 — THE THRUSHES. • 33 



its food ill tins position. General Couch speaks of it as Sparrow-like in its 

 habits. 



Mr. Nuttall descri1)es its song as cheering, and the notes of which it is 

 composed as decidedly resembling those of the Brown Thrush {Hmjw- 

 rhipichus rvfus). He claims for it some of the imitative powers of the 

 . ]\Iocking-Bird {Miiiuis jiob/glottus), but in this he is not supported by the 

 oljservations of others. He met with its nest in a wormwood (Artemisia) 

 bush on the border of a ravine ; it contained four eggs of emerald green, 

 spotted with dark olive, the spots being large, roundish, and more mimerous 

 at the larger end. The nest was composed of small twigs and rough stalks, 

 and lined with strips of bai'k and bison-wool. The female flew off to a short 

 distance, and looked at her unwelcome visitors without uttering any com- 

 plaint. 



The nests of this bird, so far as I \mvQ seen them, are all flat, shallow 

 structures, with very slight depression, and loosely and rudely constructed 

 of an intermingling of strips of bark with rootlets and the finer stems of her- 

 baceous plants. Their eggs, usually four in number, do not vary essentially 

 in size, shape, or marking. They measure 1 inch in length, and from .73 to 

 .75 in breadth'. Their ground color is a bright greenish-blue, marked with 

 deep olive-brown spots, intermingled with blotches of a light lilac. There 

 are slight variations in the proportion of green in the shade of the ground 

 color, and also in the number and size of the spots, but these variations are 

 unimportant. 



The following are Mr. Eidgway's observations upon the habits of this 

 species. They are full, valuable, and very carefully made : — 



The Oreoscoptes montanus is- a bird peculiar to the artemisia wastes of the 

 Great Basin, being a characteristic species of the region between the Sierra 

 Nevada and the Ptocky Mountains. It is exclusively an inhabitant of the 

 " sage brush," and is partial to the lower portions of the country, though 

 it is not unfrequent on the open slope of the mountains. A more unappro- 

 priate term than " Mountain Mocking-Bird " could hardly have been chosen 

 for this species, as its predilection for the valleys, and the fact that its song 

 is entire!)/ its own, will show. In my opinion, the term " Sage Thrasher " 

 would be more appropriate. 



In the neighborhood of Carson City, Nevada, these birds arrived about tlic 

 24th of March, and immediately upon their arrival began singing. At this 

 time, with the Sturnella neglecta and Poosjiiza belli, they made sweet music 

 in the afternoon and early morning, in the open wastes of " sage brush," 

 around the city. Tiie birds when singing were generally seen sitting upon 

 the summit of a " sage " bush, faintly warbling, in the course of the song 

 turning the head from side to side in a watchful manner. Upon being 

 approached, they would dart downward, seemingly diving into the bush upon 

 which they had perched, but upon a close search the bird could not be 

 found, until it was heard again singing a hundred yards or more in the 

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