WITH BROWN PREDOMINATING 275 



chestnut ; malar stripe white, with dusky streak under same on each 

 side of throat. 



Young : Similar to adults, but more rusty on upper parts, especially on 

 rump and tips of tail-feathers ; lower parts more fulvous. 



Geographical Distribution : Southern California and Northern Lower 

 California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, east to Western Texas. 



California Breeding Range : Locally in desert regions along lower Colo- 

 rado River, from Fort Yuma, northwest to Palm Springs. 



Breeding Season : February to July. 



Nest: Large and conspicuous; made of coarse twigs ; lined with strips 

 of plant bark ; placed in bushes. 



Eggs: 3 or 4 ; pale greenish blue. Size 1.08 X 0.75. 



Look for the Crissal Thrasher in the low, bushy un- 

 derbrush of the valleys where a clear brook winds its 

 way or a pond hides in a fringe of alders. Rarely will 

 you find him nesting at any great distance from water, 

 and one of the first lessons he gives his brood is to take 

 a morning splash. It is well worth while rising at four 

 A. m. to see him plunge so eagerly into the cold water and 

 splash it in a shower of sparkling drops. The bath over, 

 he flies up to the top of a tall bush to preen his wet 

 feathers and fill the air with melody. His song is un- 

 like that of any other thrasher in its smoothness of exe- 

 cution and richness of tone. Every note is sweet, true, 

 and perfect, but the whole lacks the spasmodic brilliancy 

 we are accustomed to expect in his family. It has a 

 more spiritual quality but less dash. From February 

 until late in April this Thrasher sings his sweetest, for 

 then is his springtime of love and joy. From that time 

 on through July, when the second brood is fledged, he 

 sings less enthusiastically, and soon he ceases altogether. 

 Late in the autumn he sometimes is heard again in the 

 valleys, but the full sweetness is withheld until the 

 mating season comes again, in February. 



