302 Mearns on the Birds of Arizona. LJu'y 



coverts and anal region are paler. The tail is deep fuscous, inconspic- 

 uously tipped with rustj-ash. It presents the following dimensions : 

 Length, 278; alar expanse, 319; wing, 98; tail, 125; culmen (chord), 29; 

 culmen, measured from nostril, 22; gape, 34; tarsus, 33; middle toe and 

 its claw, 30; the claw alone, 8. 



A comparison of five adults with the two above described shows some 

 variation in the shade of drab above, which is yellowish in the palest 

 specimens — those taken latest in the season — and grayish in those in 

 which the plumage is newer. The same is the case with the under plu- 

 mage, which in one specimen is almost white, in others variously tinged 

 with pale ashy-drab and ochraceous. The remiges are much paler than the 

 other quills, and grayish. Most specimens exhibit a pectoral band contrast- 

 ing with the white throat and pale color of the belly. The central rectrices, 

 which appear to be usually moulted last, are in some specimens shortened 

 and abraded, their pale drab color and worn condition being strikingly 

 different from the new outer feathers. The irides are reddish-hazel. Bill 

 plumbeous-black. Tarsi and feet varying from plumbeous-brown to 

 greenish-olive; claws from dusky olive to plumbeous black. 



Dimensions. — Average of three males: Length, 254; alar expanse, 319; 

 wing, loi ; tail, 132; culmen (chord), Ty2\ culmen from nostril, 24; gape, 

 36; tarsus, 32 ; middle toe and claw, 30; its claw alone, 8.2; graduation of 

 tail, 16. Average of four females : Length, 277 ; alar expanse, 312; wing, 

 97; tail, 126; culmen (choi-d) 32; culmen from nostril, 24; gape, 36; 

 tarsus, 31 ; middle toe and claw, 29; its claw alone, 8; graduation of tail, 



17- 



Historical resume. — This Thrasher is at once the oldest and 



least known species of the genus in Arizona. Originally de- 

 scribed by George N. Lawrence in 1S51, from a specimen taken 

 at the mouth of the Gila River, near Fort Yuma, it was not 

 again met with by naturalists for a decade, when Dr. Cooper 

 added it to the avifauna of California, stating that it was not un- 

 common in certain portions of the route between the Colorado 

 Valley and the coast slope of California. It was so very wild 

 that he could obtain but two specimens. He found an empty 

 nest built in a yucca, similar to that of H. redivivns. 



In 1865, Dr. Cones took a fourth specimen, in the month of 

 September, near the Colorado River above Fort Mojave. The 

 great work on North American Birds, by Baird, Brewer and 

 Ridgway, treats of the subspecies lecontci before the original 

 species, and adds nothing to previously published accounts. 



The fifth specimen was taken by Mr. F. Stephens, on Feb- 

 ruary 21, iSSo, in Central Arizona, as reported by Mr. Brewster. 

 He writes: 'T took this specimen ten miles north-west of 

 Phoenix. The locality was a bushy desert with large cacti. 



