THE LE CONTE THRASHER 



(Toxostoma lecontei) 



"!F you want to see a bird that can run, you 

 must watch for the little brownish bird that's 

 got a long sickle bill," said Charlie, my cowboy 

 friend, with whom I had been talking about 

 the fleet-footedness of the comical road-runner. 

 "They's a bird that can really run. They's 

 the greatest dodgers and runners and hiders 

 you ever did see. There 's only one way you can 

 ever catch one that I ever seen, and that is, by 

 chasing them down on horseback. But it's 

 risky business trying to get one that way, that's 

 what I know. Suppose your horse tumbles in a 

 badger hole when you're chasing your bird at 

 breakneck speed and you go headlong into a 

 bunch of that awful cholla, then what would 

 you say? It's no fun then, that's sure. I 

 knowed a feller once, a cowman, over on the 

 Whitewater, who had just that thing happen 

 to him. He saw one of them birds, and just 

 for fun, he said he'd show us boys how to get 



