194 DENIZENS OF THE DESERT 



than you are aware of. About the only way to 

 make a census with any proximity to satisfac- 

 tion is to count the nests of the season. I have 

 traveled for days and have seen but one or two 

 of these thrashers about when I well knew by 

 signs that there were many more in the vicinity. 



They generally keep pretty well to the brush- 

 tangled washes where some protection is offered 

 them from intruders. If there is a field of choUa 

 cactus in the vicinity, you may be sure that they 

 have sought it out as the most suitable place 

 for the nest. They will occasionally build in 

 palo verde trees, but the cactuses are always 

 their first choice as building-sites. 



The nests are generally inconspicuously 

 placed in the center of the thickly spined, 

 branching tops of the cactuses and consist of 

 rather coarse thorny twigs. They are easily 

 distinguished from the nests of the cactus wrens 

 by their open tops. The inside is generally lined 

 by vegetable wool gathered from a small woolly 

 plant, known as filago. 



The female, like most of the thrashers and 

 like the wren-tit of the foothills, is a close sitter, 

 and seldom leaves the nest until the intruder is 



