The Palmer Thrasher 
Recognition Marks.- —Jay size; dull brown coloration; curved beak. Differs 
from T. redivivum in much smaller size and paler coloration of underparts; from 
T. bendirei (with which perhaps it is most closely associated) in larger size, longer, more 
decurved bill, less extensive white on tips of tail-feathers; and from T. lecontei in much 
darker coloration. 
Nesting. —Not known to breed in California. Nest: A bulky bowl of coarse 
twigs, interlaced and lined sparingly with light-colored grasses and rootlets; placed 
2 to io feet high in cholla cactus or other desert bush. Eggs: 3, very rarely 4; light 
niagara green to pale niagara green, finely and quite uniformly dotted with reddish 
brown. Av. of 97 eggs in M. C. O. coll.: 28.2 x 19.8 (1.11 x .78); index 70; range 
24.8-32.5 by 18.5-20.8 (.98-1.28 by .73-.82). Season: March-June, according to 
altitude; two broods. 
Range of Toxostoma curvirostre .—Southern borders of the western United States, 
and Mexico. 
Range of T. c. palmeri .—Lower Sonoran deserts from south-central Arizona and 
southwestern New Mexico south to Sonora and Chihuahua. 
Occurrence in California. —One record, a female taken three miles north of 
Bard in Imperial County, Dec. 31, 1916, by Laurence M. Huey. 
Authorities.—Huey, Condor, vol. xxii., 1920, p. 73 (Bard, Imperial Co., Dec. 
31. 1916, one spec.); Brown, H., Zoe, vol. iii., 1892, p. 243 (habits and nesting; details 
of nests and eggs; s. Ariz.). 
ACCORDING to Dr. Joseph Grinnell, 1 the addition of “accidentals” 
to the California list is going on at the rate of 1-3/5 species per annum; 
so that in 410 years, viz., in the year 2333, we shall have recorded the 
entire list of North American birds, some 1250 entries, as birds of Cali¬ 
fornia. Be that as it may, we are glad to welcome this Ishmael of the 
desert, T. c. palmeri, who is without exception the most characteristic 
bird of the Arizonian wastes, and so our proper near neighbor. 
The Palmer Thrasher shares with the Cactus Wren ( Iieleodytes 
brunneicapillus couesi) the horrendous bosom of the Cholla Cactus 
(Opuntia fulgida, 0 . bigelovii, and, more rarely, 0 . mamillata) . Language 
cannot exaggerate the diabolical hostility of one of these armed shrubs. 
It is one incarnate menace, and it seems to exist solely that it may inflict 
torture. Yet the birds thread these bristling mazes without trepidation; 
and since their bodies are as tender as others, we must suppose that 
they have become so expert as actually to avoid the prick of them. 
They make their nests in the heart of the plant, and sometimes are so 
closely beset that a single false motion would insure destruction. 
That the nesting birds are not entirely insensible to this thousand- 
sworded Damoclean menace, is proved by the example of one determined 
mother near Tucson. She had succeeded in plucking, or breaking in 
two, every spike within reach of her nest—they are desperately tough. 
141 The Role of the 4 Accidental,’ ” in the Auk, Vol. XXXIX., July, 1922, p. 375* 
