MOBBED IN ARIZONA 209 



It was a true guess ; and in a strange countiy 

 a man makes so many poor guesses that he may 

 reasonably boast a little over every good one. 

 To this day, I am bound to add, the birds, with 

 their short bills, their extraordinary quickness 

 upon their feet, and their upright carriage, have 

 to my eye very little the appearance of thrashers. 

 Perhaps when I hear them sing, my feeling may 

 alter. 



There is at least one real thrasher in the de- 

 sert, however, and usually in the same places that 

 Oroscoptes affects, places such as I have men- 

 tioned, where cacti are mingled with the omni- 

 present creosote. This is Palmer's thrasher, 

 so called, a grayish-brown bird, with the charac- 

 teristic thrasher make-up — long bill, long body, 

 and long tail. He is one of the common birds 

 about Tucson, both in the river valley and on the 

 desert, and one of the few that are already in 

 song. Even he, I suspect, is not reaUy letting 

 himself go as yet, but he is in tune daily ; not 

 so versatile a performer, seemingly, as our East- 

 ern reddish-brown bird ; with much less range 

 of voice, and more given to repeating the same 

 phrase half a dozen times in succession, so that 

 his music has less the air of a strict improvisa- 

 tion ; but a genuine thrasher, nevertheless, with 

 a thrasher's song. As the season progresses he 



