The Bendire Thrasher 
No. 140 
Bendire’s Thrasher 
A. O. U. No. 708. Toxostoma bendirei (Coues). 
Description. — Adults: Upperparts plain grayish brown or drab, with slight 
increase of brown posteriorly; tail darker brownish gray (fuscous), the three outer 
pairs of rectrices narrowly tipped with white; cheeks drab streaked with buffy; under¬ 
parts chiefly dingy white or pale buffy; crissum and flanks pinkish buff, immaculate; 
the breast and sides more or less shaded with pale buffy brown; sides of throat, chest, 
breast, and sides streaked with pale grayish brown, the streaks sharpest and narrowest 
on chest, broader and more diffuse posteriorly. Bill slightly curved; dusky horn-color, 
paling basally on lower mandible; tarsi light brown, the feet dark; iris yellow. Imma¬ 
ture: Much like adult, but upperparts largely brighter brown (especially rump), 
contrasting with dusky of scapulars, remiges, and tail. Length about 254 (10.00) or 
less; wing 105 (4.13); tail no (4-33); bill 24 (.94); tarsus 33.5 (1.32). 
Recognition Marks. —Robin size; to appearance and in size intermediate be¬ 
tween Leconte’s Thrasher and Sage Thrasher; drab of upperparts slightly darker than 
in T. lecontei, smaller, feet much paler, bill much shorter and less curved, underparts 
faintly spotted; larger and much lighter than in Oreoscoptes montanus, bill larger and 
longer, underparts only faintly spotted. 
Nesting. — Nest: A loose assemblage of twigs, coarse or fine, lined variously 
with rootlets, grasses, horsehair or waste—the most varied in this respect of all thrashers 
—and placed at moderate heights in desert bush or tree. Eggs: 3, rarely 4; white, 
or grayish- or bluish-white, spotted sharply or diffusely, or faintly clouded with fawn- 
color (light vinaceous fawn to army brown) and vinaceous gray. Av. of 34 eggs in the 
M. C. O. coll.: 25.2 x 18.5 (.99 x .73); index 73.7; range 22.6-29.7 x 16.5-19.6 (.89- 
1.17 x .65-.77). Season: April-June; one brood. 
General Range. —Lower Sonoran deserts of Arizona, California and Mexico. 
Breeds in southern Arizona and northern Sonora, less commonly in California; winters 
south to Sinaloa; accidental in Colorado. 
Occurrence in California. —Not common breeder on the Mohave Desert (at 
least near Victorville), probably also on the Colorado Desert; seven records of occur¬ 
rence as below. 
Authorities.—A. O. U. Check-List ( Harporhynchus bendirei), 2nd ed., 1895, 
p. 293 (Agua Caliente [Palm Springs]); see Grinnell, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 11. 1915, 
p. 154; Heller , Condor, vol. iii., 1901, p. 100 (Warren’s Wells, Mohave Desert “fairly 
common in May, 1896 Brown, II., Auk, vol. xviii., 1901, p. 225 (s. Arz.; range, 
habits, desc. nest and eggs); Miller, Condor, vol. xv., 1913, p. 41 (Los Angeles); Pierce, 
Condor, vol. xxi., 1919, p. 123 (V.ctorville, May); ibid:, vol. xxiii., 1921, p. 34, fig. 
(Victorville; nesting). 
THE HIGH-SOUNDING names which we have given to our 
Western Thrashers suggest a degree of difference between them which 
does not exist. While perfectly distinct as species, it is rather their 
striking similarity in appearance which impresses the bird student. 
Children of the desert all, it is only because the Crissal Thrasher has 
sought the cover of the mesquite woods that its browns have become the 
