4.0 SAGE THRASHER. 
near us, running gracefully upon the ground in the manner of a Robin, stretching their 
necks, curious to see what we were doing, and watching our movements with an 
anxious look, but uttering no note whatever. 
“The only note of this species, besides its song, is simply a weak ‘tuck,’ seldom 
uttered unless the young are disturbed; except during the pairing and nesting seasons, 
it is one of the most silent birds with which I am acquainted. In September I saw it 
feeding upon the ‘service-berries,’ which grew abundantly in certain localities at the foot 
of the mountains.”— 
The eggs of this bird, usually four in number, measure about .97 inch in length, and 
.72 inch in breadth. The ground-color is light greenish-blue, marked heavily with dark 
and light brown spots and some others of a neutral tint. ‘The pattern is generally 
bold and sharp, but in some cases finer and more diffuse, when the numberless speckles 
and dots give an effect similar to that of some styles of Mockingbird’s eggs.’’ (Coues.) 
No subsequent observer agrees with Nuttall in attributing to the Sage Thrasher 
the power of imitating the songs of other birds. In captivity it is never heard to mimic 
sounds like the Mockingbird and the Catbird. It has an excellent song of its own, very 
beautiful, loud, and modulated. It closely resembles that of the Thrasher, but is not so 
loud and continued. At any rate the Mountain Mockingbird is one of the most valu- 
able of our singing birds. 
NAMES: Sacre THrasHerR, Mountain Mockingbird.—Germ. Salbeidrossel, Gebirgs-Spottvogel. 
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: OROSCOPTES MONTANUS Bairp, B.N. Am. 1858, 347. Orpheus montanus Towns. 
(1837). Turdus montanus Aud. O. B. 1838 p. 437. 
DESCRIPTION: Adult male and female: Above brownish gray; two narrow white bands on the wings; 
outer tail-feathers broadly tipped with white. Beneath whitish, more or Jess tinged with buffy on the 
flanks and under tail-coverts; the breast and almost the entire under parts marked with triangular 
dusky spots, largest and most crowded across the breast, smaller and sparse and sometimes absent 
on the throat and lower belly. Young similar to adult, but above conspicuously streaked with dusky, 
and spots on lower parts less sharply defined.— Length a little over 8 inches. , 
