1SS4.I Stepiikns on Lrconfr's Thrasher, etc. 355 



SO from tlic spriiif^, I heard a bird singing in a low desultory 

 way, that reminded me much of the song of ' Harporhynchus 

 lecontei as I had heard it once in Arizona. On going towards 

 it I saw the singer perched on a dry stem. On my attempting 

 to approach it, it slid off to the ground and struck out on a run, 

 carrying its tail elevated at an angle of about 45°, a more common 

 characteristic of lecontei than of any other species of Harpor- 

 hynicJucs that I am acquainted with. I followed it some distance, 

 but it escaped without my getting a shot, and I failed to find it 

 again, although I searched for half an hour. 



Before reaching the palm cailon I shot a male LopJiortyx 

 gambell^ and saw others. The neighboring foothills furnish L. 

 californicus.1 and Oreo}-tyx picta plumifera occurs a few miles 

 further up the mountains. 



The grove of palms was tenanted mainly by Carpodacus 

 frontalis. Among the masses of dead palm leaves, clustered 

 below the living ones, were many Oriole nests. I climbed 

 several trunks to inspect the nests, finding that they were com- 

 posed exclusively of the strong hemp-like palm fibres, making a 

 beautiful warm nest. All seen, except one, were attached to the 

 under sides of the masses of dead leaves, among the wind-frayed 

 filaments composing the ends of the old leaves. The exception 

 was one apparently sewed on the under side of a large green leaf. 

 I much wanted to get it, as it was a very pretty nest, but it was 

 'impossible to climb past the mass of old leaves which surrounded 

 the trunk some thirty feet from the ground, and was eight or ten 

 feet in diameter and pressed almost solid by the storms of years. 

 I fired several shots at the leaf stem, trying to cut it ofi', but the 

 tough fibres were too much for my small shot. Nearl}' all were 

 the shallow, cup-like nests of Icturiis cucullatus., but one was 

 larger and wider than this species is likely to make, and prob- 

 ably belonged to /. parisorii/n. None were the more purse-like 

 nests of /. bullocki. Some nests taken were filled with sound 

 seeds of the palm, evidently placed there by a smaH species of 

 mouse, of which I saw one. No Orioles were seen in the caiion, 

 but the following day I saw several /. bullocki in the cotton- 

 woods around Agua Caliente. 



In going back to camp I followed down the stream flowing 

 from the palm canon. A mile or two below where it sank into 

 the sand I saw another Leconte's Thrasher in a grease-wood 



