CRISSAL THRASHER. 71 
degree of maturity; upon these the Thrashers delight to feed. Inseéts constitute an 
important article of their diet at all seasons. 
“T found this Thrasher tolerably common in the vicinity of Fort Mojave in May, 
upon both the Arizona and Nevada shores of the Colorado, and also at the Needles 
farther down the river, in California, where the. species has been observed as far south 
as Fort Yuma, opposite the mouth of the Gila River. Near the Colorado River, at the 
mouth of Diamond Creek, it was found later in the season; but, farther east along the 
Colorado Cafion, I did not meet with it. Even in the deep, warm cajion of Cataract 
Creek, where-Mockinghbirds were singing in November long after their departure from 
the Verde Valley, none were found. Dr. Palmer found it breeding near St. George, in 
southern Utah. It is very abundant in the Agua Fria Valley, west of the Rio Verde, and 
is found all the way to the confluence of that stream with the Gila River, from which 
point I have traced it as far eastward along the Gila as the mouth of San Carlos River, 
near which many were heard singing among the dreary sandhills of the Iridian Reserva- 
tion, and thence northward through Tonto Basin. Others have found it along the Gila 
in New Mexico; but I have only noticed it farther east, about Deming, New Mexico, in 
the dry course of the Mimbres River, near the point where it was first discovered by 
Dr. T. C. Henry of the U. S. Army. Unlike the three remaining species, it is rarely 
found in desert country away from streams. When crossing the hundred miles of desert 
between the Gila River, near Maricopa and Tucson, it was not positively identified 
once, although I thought I saw one near Picacho Station, when returning in May. 
Along the Santa Cruz and Rillito Rivers, near Tucson and Fort Lowell, the species was 
again found in small numbers, and was abundant thence, in suitable localities, as far 
east as Bowie Station, where it was found to breed, as well as in the neighboring foot- 
hills of the Chircahua Mountains, where I found a nest containing two newly-hatched 
young and an egg on the last day of April. The young were on wing in the dry plains 
of San Simon Valley below. From the abundance of the species there, I do not doubt 
that it ranges southward into Mexico.” ; 
NAMES: CrissaL THRASHER, Red-vented Thrasher, Henry’s Thrasher. 
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Toxostoma crissalis Henry (1858). HARPORHYNCHUS CRISSALIS Barrp (1858), 
Cooper, B. Cal. I, (1870), B. B. & R., N. A. B. I, (1874), Coues, B. Col. Val. (1872), A. O. U. “Code 
and Check List” (1886), Ridgw., Man. (1887). 
DESCRIPTION: Male and female, “above nearly uniform ashy-brown; below a paler shade of the same but 
clearer ashy ; under tail-coverts and crissum chestnut-rufous, this color fading as it passes forward to 
the epigastrium into pale rusty-yellow; tibia and lining of wings washed with the same. The chin, 
middle of the throat, maxillary stripe and spotting upon the cheeks nearly white. There are narrow 
blackish stripes upon the sides of the throat, cutting off the white maxillary stripes above them. The 
outer rectrices have conspicuously paler, rusty tips. Under plumage lead-color. Iris brownish straw- 
color.” (Mearns.) Bill and feet dark.— Length about 12 inches; wing 4, tail 6, bill 1.50 inches. 
[I enumerate here a number of birds, which, in a scientific sense, belong to different 
families of birds, but which find their place near the Thrushes. ] 
