64 LONG-BILLED THRASHER. 
NAMES: Brown Trirasner, Thrasher, Brown Thrush, Sand Mockingbird, French Mockingbird, Ferrugineus 
Thrush, Fox-colored Mockbird (Swains.), Ferrugineus Mockingbird.— Braundrossel, Drescher (Germ.). 
Grive rousse (Le M.). 
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Turdus rufus Linn. (1758), Aud., Wils. Orpheus rufus Swains. (1831). Mimus rufus 
Gray (1838). Toxostoma rufum Cah. (1847). HARPORHYNCHUS RUFUS Caxanis (1850), Baird, 
Coues, Allen, Ridgw., Merriam, and A.O.U. Antininnus rufus Sund. (1872). 
DESCRIPTION: Above, uniform rich rusty-red with a bronze tint; below, white, more or less tinged with 
dawny; breast marked with oval or lanceolate dark-brown spots, which run up each side of the 
throat in a chain; throat, belly, and under tail-coverts, whitish, unspotted; wings with white bars; 
tail, very long; bill, blackish above, yellow at base below; iris, fine yellow.—Length about 11 inches; 
wing about 4, tail 5 inches, or more; bill 1 inch. — 
LONG-BILLED THRASHER. 
Harporhynchus. longirostris Cap. 
O ORNITHOLOGIST is better acquainted with the birds of the Lower Rio Grande 
than Mr. Geo. B. Sennett, now of the American Museum of Natural History, of 
New York. He has spent several seasons there, and his observations are laid down in 
two admirable papers: ‘Notes on the Ornithology of the Lower Rio Grande, of Texas,” 
and ‘Further Notes on the Birds of the Lower Rio Grande, of Texas.’’* 
“Of the Thrushes on our extreme southern border,” he writes, ‘I found the Texas 
THRASHER next to the Mockingbird in pomt of numbers. Usually they keep out of the 
sight of man, even when their home is invaded, and the bird driven from the nest. 
I do not remember of their making any cry of grief at such depredation. One day in 
April, while concealed in a dense thicket close by some heavy timber, a pair of this 
species gave me pleasure for a full half hour. This, I think, was the only time IJ ever 
saw them for more than a moment or two at a time. The male was nearly as full of 
song as a Mockingbird, and his notes seemed much sweeter, not being so loud. They 
kept very near each other, the female giving frequent little chirps. I was unable to see 
any peculiarities distinct from the habits of its nearest relative, H. rufus, excepting that 
it was more arboreal, and built its nest much higher.... I found none without a 
lining, either of grasses, Spanish moss, fine roots, or bark. There was a marked de- 
pression in every nest, varying from 1 inch to 2.50 inches. Of those taken, the lowest 
was four feet from the ground, and the highest some eight feet, averaging, I think, 
5¥% feet. I found their nests in a variety of places—prickly-pear cactus, Spanish bayonets, 
chaparral, and most commonly in the dense undergrowth under the heavier timber, Its 
usual position is in the very heart of the tree or plant selected, and, like most of the 
nests of this region, not capable of being detached from the thorny bushes without 
falling to pieces. I found the birds and nests of only three Thrushes, viz: Mockingbird, 
Curve-hilled Thrasher, and the one now under consideration; and I doubt very much 
* Bulletin of the U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Surv. of the Territories. Vol. IV, V, 1878, 1879. 
