TURDID.E — THE THRUSHES. 39 



placed in the interior of a heap of brushwood loosely thrown together. I 

 liave never met with the nest built upon the ground, but in Springfield, and 

 in other dry and sandy localities, this is by no means an uncommon occur- 

 rence. These nests are frequently placed in close proximity to houses, and 

 sometimes in the very midst of villages. 



The nest of the Thrasher is large, and roughly but strongly built. The 

 base is usually made of coarse twigs, sticks, and ends of branches, firmly 

 interwoven. Within this is constructed an inner nest, composed of dried 

 lea^'es, strips of bark, and strong black fibrous roots. These are lined 

 with finer roots, horse-hair, an occasional feather, etc. 



Tlie eggs are usually four, sometimes five, and rarely six, in number. They 

 vary both in the tints of the ground color, in those of their markings, and 

 slightly in their shape. Their length varies from .99 to 1.12 inches, with a 

 mean of 1.05. Their breadth ranges from .76 to .87 of an inch; mean 

 breadth, .81. The ground color is sometimes white, marked with fine reddish- 

 brown dots, confluent at the larger end, or forming a broad ring around the 

 crown. In others the markings have a yellowish-brown tint. Sometimes the 

 ground color is a light green. 



Harporhynchus rufus, var. longirostris, Caban. 



TEXAS THEASHER. 



Or-phcus longirostris, Lafr. R. Z. 1838, 55. — Ib. Mag. de Zool. 1839, Ois. pi. i. Toxos- 

 toma longirostre, Cab. Wiegni. Arch. 1847, i. 207. Minms longirostris, Sclateii, 

 P. Z. S. 1856, 294 (Cordova). HarporhyncMis longirostris. Cab. Mus. Hein. 1850, 81. 

 — Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 352, pi. lii. — Ib. Rev. 44. — Sclater, P. Z. S. 1859, 

 339 ; Ib. 1864, 172 (City of Mex.) ; Ib. Catal. 1861, 8, no. 47. 



Sp. Char. Similar to H. nifu^^ the rufous of back much darker. Wings much rounded ; 

 second quill shorter than the secondaries. Exposed portion of the bill as long as the head ; 

 the lower edge decidedly decurved or concave. Above rather dark broAvnish-rufous ; 

 beneath pale rufous-white ; streaked on the sides of the neck and body, and across the 

 breast, with very dark brownish-black, nearly uniform throughout, much darker than in 

 rufus. Two rather narrow white bands on the wings. The concealed portion of the 

 quills dark brown. Length, 10.50 ; wing, 4.00 ; tail, 5.00 ; tarsus, 1 40. 



Has. Eastern Mexico ; north to Rio Grande, Texas. Cordova, Scl. Orizaba (tem- 

 perate region), Sumichrast. 



Specimens from the Eio Grande to Mirador and Orizaba are quite identical, 

 with, of course, differences among individuals. This " species " is not, in 

 our opinion, separable from the H. rufus specifically ; but is a race, repre- 

 senting the latter in the region given above, where the rufus itself is never 

 found. The relations of these two forms are exactly paralleled in the Thrijo- 

 thurus ludovicianus and T. bcrlandicri, the latter being nothing more than 

 the darker Southern representation of the former. 



The Texas Thrasher appears to belong only to the Avifauna of the South- 



