NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 455 



Mr. Sennett says that the Texas Thrasher is a very abundant species through- 

 out the whole Lower Rio Grande country. It frequents shady thickets, 

 and is rarely seen in the open plains. Dr. Merrill pronounces it a fine songster, and 

 states that in habits it scarcely differs from the Eastern bird, rufu*. The eggs, as 

 Mr. Sennett found them, are usually four in the first clutch in April, while second- 

 sets, late in May : contain generally three. They are hardly distinguishable from 

 those of H. rufus. Dr. Merrill gives the average size of fifty-two eggs as 1.08x.82, the 

 extremes being 1.13x.86 and .97x.75. 



707. CURVE-BILLED THBASHEB. H arporhynchus curvirostris (Swains.) 

 Geog. Dist. Mexico, north to Southern Texas and New Mexico (east of the Rocky 

 Mountains). 



According to Dr. J. C. Merrill and Mr. George B. Sennett, this species is about 

 as common as the Mockingbird or H. longirostris sennetti on the Lower Rio Grande. 

 It inhabits tangled thickets as well as prickly-pear cactuses and mesquite 

 trees, which afford breeding resorts. In two instances Mr. Sennett found nests in 

 ebony trees near much frequented pathways, and the birds were as tame as Robins. 

 The usual height of nests from the ground is about four feet. Mr. G. B. Benners 

 found a nest of this bird in a Woodpecker's hole in a live oak on the banks of the 

 Rio Grande. It contained four eggs. Dr. Merrill says: "They are, as a rule, readily 

 distinguishable from those of the Texas Thrasher and Mockingbird by the almost 

 invariable lining of yellow straws, giving a peculiar appearance to the nest. They 

 are also more compactly built, are well cupped, and often have the edges well 

 guarded by thorny twigs." Mr. Sennett states that the bird commences to breed 

 in March on the Rio Grande, and rears several broods. The first eggs are laid in 

 April, and generally number four; by the middle or latter part of May the second 

 sets consist nearly always of three. A few sets of four were found of the second lay- 

 ing. Five sets of these eggs are in my cabinet, taken near Camargo, Mexico, in March, 

 April and May. They vary from oval-oblong to almost pyriform in shape, and their 

 ground-color is almost invariably light bluish-green, minutely speckled with reddish- 

 brown. The sizes of two sets as as follows: l.Olx.73, l.OOx.75, 1.02x.79, 1.10x.75; 1.10 

 x.79, l.lOx.81, 1.15x.83, 1.13x.81. The average size is 1.08x.78. 



707a. PALMER'S THBASHEB. Harporhynchus curvirostris palmeri Ridgw. 

 Geog. Dist. Southern Arizona, southward into Sonora (Guaymas). 



One of the most common birds on the cactus-covered plains of Arizona. The 

 breeding season in some sections begins in February, in other localities early in 

 March, and generally two broods are reared in a season. The nests are usually built 

 in the cholla, a kind of prickly cactus, at a height of about three to six feet. It is 

 composed of twigs and lined with dry grass; sometimes the lining is mixed with hair 

 or feathers when procurable. According to the observations of Mr. W. E. D. Scott 

 and Mr. Herbert Brown, the usual number of eggs laid by Palmer's Thrasher is three, 

 sometimes four, not infrequently two and rarely one. The eggs cannot with cer- 

 tainty be distinguished from those of the Curve-billed Thrasher. The sizes of a set 

 of eggs containing the smallest specimens in a series of twenty-one sets in Mr. 

 Norris' collection are, 1.10x.78, 1.09x.78, 1.13x.78; y the largest 1.24x.81, 1.20x.79, 1.16x.79. 



708. BENDIBE'S THBASHEB. Harporhynchus bendirei Coues. Geog. Dist. 

 Southern Arizona, south into Sonora (Guaymas), casually northeastward to Colorado. 



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