64 SYNONYMY OF HARPORHYNCIIUS CURVIROSTRIS 



ing up the other species of the genus, which are far better rep- 

 resented in the Colorado Basin. It is scarcely, in fact, an in- 

 habitant of this region at all, only reaching, as far as we now 

 know, the extreme northeastern portion, where it has been 

 found, by Mr. J. A. Allen, in the mountains of Colorado Ter- 

 ritory, up to an altitude of 7,500 feet. The foregoing para- 

 graph indicates its general range, in every part of which it ap- 

 pears to nestle with equal readiness, while it passes the winter 

 in the southerly portions. Very singularly, the only extralim- 

 ital records I possess of this species refer to its occurrence, not 

 near our boundaries, as would be expected, but in Europe. It 

 has been found in Heligoland, that wonderful little island in the 

 North Sea, where the ornithology of the four quarters of the 

 world seems to come to a focus. To epitomize some other 

 points in its history, I may say that it is a delightful songster, 

 like all its tribe ; inhabits brushwood and shrubbery, spending 

 much of its time on the ground, scratching for food with all the 

 persistency of a Towhee ; feeds on insects and berries ; nests, 

 according to locality, from March to June, in brushes, vines, or 

 brier-patches; builds a bulky structure of twigs, weed-stalks, 

 withered leaves, bark-strips, and fibrous roots, and lays from 

 four to six eggs, about an inch long by four-fifths broad, white 

 or greenish-white, marked with innumerable reddish-brown 

 dots, usually more numerous at or around the larger end. 



Curve-billed Thrasher 



Harporliyiielms cnrvirostris i>a3iiaeri 



a. curvirostris. 



OrpheilS Clirvirostris, SID. Philos. Mag. iii. 1827, 363 (Eastern Mexico). McCtill, Pr. Phila. 



Acad. iv. 1848, 63 (Matamoras). 

 Mimus curvirostris, Gray, G. of B. 



Toxostoma curvirostris, Bp. CA. i. 1S50, 277. Lawr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. vi. 1850, 223 (Texas). 

 Bd. Stansbury's Rep. GSL. 1852, 329. 



Toxostoma Clirvirostre, Scl. PZS. 1857, 212 (Orizaba). 



Harporliynchus cnrvirostris, Cab. MIL i. 1850, Sl.Bd. BNA. 1858, 351 ; ed. of 1860, 351, pi. 

 51. Bd. U. S. Mex. B. Surv. ii. pt. ii, 1859, Birds, 12, pi. 13. Scl. PZS. 1859, 339 (critical); 

 1859, 370 (Oaxaca). .Bd. RAB. i. 1864, 45. Dress. Ibis, 2d ser. i. 18G5, 432 (Texas). 

 Butch. Pr. Phila. Acad. xx. 1868, 149 (Laredo, Tex.). Cones, Am. Nat. vii. 1873, 328 

 (critical). B. B. $ R. NAB. i. 1874, 41, pi. 3, f. 3 ("adjacent regions of United States 

 and Mexico, southward", &c.). 



Pomatorhinus turAlnu$,Temm. re. 41 1. 



Toxostoma vetula, rr^.igi s ,i83i, 528. 



[NOTE. Some of the foregoing United States references actually or virtually include palmeri.] 



