226 The Wilson Bulletin -^ Xo. 90 



The solid rock was varied only by greasewood and cactus, 

 with which I got a somewhat painful acquaintance at first, 

 growing" out of the crevices. To the right of us ran a long 

 canyon, the sides of wdiich were densely covered with grease- 

 wood and here I -recognized at once the song of the Western 

 Vesper Sparrow by its similarity to that of the eastern variety 

 which exceeds it in sweetness. In between there arose a 

 stronger, more trilling song and soon I noticed the performer, 

 but he was exceedingly difP.cult to get at and identified it as 

 a Brewe-r's Sparrow. Once known it is not quickly forgotten. 

 We wandered on, the shrubs grew denser, great beds of 

 flowers with the most intense and glowing colors, dark in- 

 digo blue, yellow, scarlet, red and white, in such exquisite 

 purity as I had never seen them before, shone in the bright 

 sunlight, and all of a sudden there burst fo-rth from the 

 dreary greasewood a song of great power and glory. I list- 

 ened attentively. Surel^' they were Thrasher notes and at 

 last I caught sight of the songster — a fine Sage Thrasher. 

 1 had read much about the vocal powers of this b'i-rd and he 

 certainly is a fine songster. Still I wovild not place his best 

 performance above that of a good Catbird. On the other 

 hand in that sterile waste in which he lives he helps to put 

 life, beauty and melody into a wilderness and that may have 

 helped to extol his. vocal powers somewhat above the stand- 

 ard wh'ch they really attain. But after all we should be 

 thankful that he has been placed in these desolate places. 



xVnd again there was a change in the landscape. There 

 was a peculiar od.cr in the air, great beds of sage appeared 

 now and from the midst of it there came still another song 

 not as powerful as that of the Sage Thrasher, but stronger 

 and more beautiful than that of the Brewer's Sparrow. 

 Everywhere in this region it was tinkling in the ai-r and cou- 

 pled with that of the Thrasher and the Brewer's Sparrow T 

 had qu'te a concert. Their plain gray garb made identifica- 

 tion easv and 1 had great delight in watching these Sage 

 .Sparrows. In all my travels through the Sage brush how- 

 ever I was unlucky in not finding that bird otherwise so com- 



