WITH BROWN PREDOMINATING 269 
and under tail-coverts ; the chest, breast, and sides thickly marked 
with wedge-shaped longitudinal spots and streaks of dusky. 
Young: Similar to adult, but upper parts indistinctly streaked with 
darker, and streaks on under parts less sharply defined. 
Geographical Distribution: Sagebrush plains of Western United States, 
from Montana south in winter to Mexico. 
California Breeding Kange: In upper Sonoran zone southeast of the 
Sierra Nevada. 
Breeding Season: March to July. 
Nest : A loose, bulky structure; made of bark strips, small twigs, dry 
sage shreds ; lined with fine stems and rootlets, and sometimes hair ; 
placed generally in sagebrush from 10 inches to 3 feet from the ground. 
Eggs: 3 to 5; rich greenish blue, spotted with bright reddish brown. 
Size 0.95 X 0.70. 
Even amid the sands and barrenness of the sage- 
brush district, you may hear the full, sweet song of the 
Thrasher and dream that you are in a shady nook of 
New England with a babbling brook at your feet and 
the thick green canopy of vines overhead, — that is, if 
you close your eyes and forget the glare of the desert 
sunshine. What a medley of music he pours from that 
full throat! It is a sort of “rag-time,” and uncon- 
sciously you interpret it in words as mixed as the tune. 
Who else can do it but the brown thrasher of the East ? 
It is somewhat of a shock to open your eyes and see 
the grayish bird singing in the top of the low sage- 
bush with, maybe, not a tree in sight. But his droop- 
ing tail and raised bill proclaim him a true thrasher for 
all his queer environment. Somewhere in the sage- 
brush his mate is patiently brooding on the four or five 
blue eggs. For fourteen days she keeps to her appointed 
task, and then her busy life begins anew. ‘There are 
naked nestlings to be fed, and all the food must be 
swallowed by the adult before the delicate baby throats 
