^°^'l9^2^^^] Stafford, Notes on Palmer's Thrasher. 365 



in this part of the country. When motionless or moving carelessly 

 about one occasions no more fear than a sheep or a horse, to be 

 merely avoided rather than feared. Commenting on this fearless- 

 ness my notes say : " Last night as we sat motionless on the porch 

 one of the Thrashers approached by stages to within five feet of us, 

 caught a moth beneath the umbrella trees, flew up into one of 

 the trees just before me, and then to the tap and bent over again 

 and again for the drops of water that collected just within the 

 mouth of the faucet. All of these acts he performed utterly 

 unconscious of us as living and observing creatures." 



The nest which I supposed belonged to them — although I had 

 not seen them near it — I had discovered in one of the two choUas 

 on the ranch ground. It was bulky, yet neat: a deep cup lined 

 with feathers, string, rootlets, straws and many horse hairs, sunk 

 in a large structure of mesquite twigs lodged between the cactus 

 branches. The top of the nest is some three and a half feet from 

 the ground. In regard to this nest I verified a suspicion as thus 

 recorded by my notes: "Jan. 26, 1912 — Last night at about eight 

 o'clock was interested to visit the cholla wherein the Thrashers' 

 nest is, and found one, and possibly both, of the birds at home. I 

 flashed an electric light on the cactus as I approached, and one 

 Thrasher at least flew out whistling shrilly in alarm. Whether the 

 nest itself is occupied during the night is yet a question of doubt." 



The next night I settled the question as told ih this further 

 extract from my notebook : " At about sunset, and while it was yet 

 quite fully light, I took a small chair and seated myself almost 

 within arm's reach and in full view of the cholla cactus back of 

 the sheds. For twenty minutes nothing appeared save a troop of 

 Desert and Brewer's Sparrows flying by, cheeping, to their roost 

 in the low mesquites. iVs yet there was no sign of the Thrashers. 

 Suddenly, as the gloom was faintly beginning to gather, one of the 

 birds, without previous warning, arrived from the east and lighted 

 on a fence post near me. I sat quite motionless, but he evidently 

 regarded this unwonted object near his home with suspicion. I 

 felt that he was examining me. Then he uttered, fairly in my ear, 

 a volley of his whip-like whistles, which, after a moment, was 

 loudly answered upon a sudden from the second bird, which seemed 

 to come from the south. The two, thus joined for the night, flew 



