iS86.] Meakns oil tlic Birds of Arizona. 3*-^3 



At the time, it was singing in a similar manner to U. palmeri^ 

 only very sweetly. I should consider them excellent songsters. 

 They do not mock other birds and the song is unlike that of 

 H. redivivHS." This bird and another seen near the same place 

 were the only ones met with by Mr. Stephens in several years' 

 experience, although he thrice traversed the route through Cali- 

 fornia where Dr. Cooper found it ; but he afterwards secured two 

 more, on July 5, iSSi, about fifteen miles west of Maricopa, 

 Arizona, in a locality which he describes as follows : "Near the 

 middle of 'Forty-five-mile Desert' between Maricopa Wells and 

 Gila Bend. No choUa or other cactuses in the immediate neigh- 

 borhood, but some giant cactuses about a mile away in the hills ; 

 a few mesquites and much scattered low brush in the vicinity ; 

 nearest water twenty miles away." 



The nest and eggs of this rare species were discovered by Mr. 

 E. Holterhoff, Jr., in the middle of the Coloi'ado Desert, in 

 California, at a station called Flowing Wells, and described in 

 the 'American Naturalist,' Vol. XV, No 3, March, 1881. 



In 1884, ^^'- -^* Stephens again found some of these Thrashers 

 in the extreme western end of the Colorado Desert, about the end 

 of March, and has given a very interesting account of this species 

 and others {cj'. Auk, I, p[). 353-358, October, 1884) observed 

 by him near Agua Caliente, California, in which he dwells upon 

 its exceeding wildness, notes its length} breeding season, and 

 describes its supposed nest, built in the centre of a cholla cactus. 



The only extra-limital record of the occurrence of Leconte's 

 Thrasher was published by Mr. William Brewster, in 'The Auk' 

 for April, 18S5, p. 196; and his notice was added to by Mr. 

 Stephens,* who took the specimens about fifteen miles inland 

 from Fort Lobos, on the Gulf of California. In this article Mr. 

 Brewster mentions "a dozen or more" specimens, including all 

 of those collected by Mr. Stephens, as having passed through his 

 hands. Eight specimens collected by myself, during the spring 

 of 1885, brings the number of known specimens up to about two 

 dozen. 



Habits : — Any one who traverses the desert between Fhccnix 

 and Maricopa will probably catch sight of at least one of these 

 pallid Thrashes, but may consider himself fortunate if he 



* Auk, II, July, 1885, pp. 229-231. 



