Western Mocking-bird 479 
bush ; Henshaw states that in the case of a nest examined 
by him there was a kind of platform erected above the 
nest, apparently as a screen from the sun. The eggs, 
usually five, are greenish-blue, heavily spotted with 
brown and lilac. Warren found a nest with five fresh 
eggs on June 22nd, near the lower bridge over the Snake 
River, in Routt co., and Gilman (07, p. 142) several with 
six and seven eggs at Navajo Springs, near the New 
Mexico border line, on May 31st and the following days. 
Genus MIMUS. 
Bill moderate, shorter than the head; culmen slightly curved ; 
rictal bristles well developed; tail slightly longer than the wing, 
graduated, the outer feathers considerably shorter than the next pair ; 
tarsus very distinctly scutellated ; plumage dull brown with white on 
the wings and tail. 
A considerable American genus with only one species in the United 
States, separated into an eastern and western race, hardly to be dis- 
tinguished from each other. 
Western Mocking-bird. Mimus polyglottos leucopterus. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 703a—Colorado Records—Say 1823, Vol. ii., 
p. 182; Ridgway 73, p. 179 ; Henshaw 75, p. 151; Allen & Brewster 
83, p. 153 ; Drew 85, p. 15; Beckham 85, p. 140; Morrison 88, p. 71; 
Lowe 92, p. 101; Cooke 97, pp. 19, 119, 221; 98, p. 18; Keyser 02, 
p. 98; Dille 03, p. 74; Warren 06, p. 24; 08, p. 25; 09, p. 17; Gilman 
07, p. 194; Markman 07, p. 158; Rockwell 08, p. 177; Henderson 
09, p. 240. 
Description.—Adult male—Above dull slaty-brown, becoming dusky 
black on the wings and tail, the former with white on the bases of the 
primaries, on the greater part of the primary-coverts and the tips 
of some of the outer coverts ; the tail with the outer pair of feathers 
almost entirely white, the second and third pairs with oblique white 
tips chiefly on the inner web; below and an indistinct superciliary 
stripe dirty white, rather smoky on the chest and flanks, more buffy 
on the breast ; iris greyish-yellow, bill black, paler towards the base 
of the lower mandible ; legs dusky. Length 8-5; wing 4-25; tail 4-5; 
culmen -7; tarsus 1-15. 
The female closely resembles the male, but is a trifle smaller. A 
young bird is a good deal paler above, and has the light edgings on 
the wings more developed, and the under-parts spotted with dusky. 
