The California Thrasher 
Taken in 
Los Angeles 
County 
Photo by Pierce 
weak a-wing, and oftener 
escapes by hopping 
through the shrubbery 
or running along the 
ground, than by exercise 
of the grand manner. 
Screeping in the 
brush is always gener¬ 
ously responded to, for 
redivivum has a lively 
bump of curiosity. He 
is, moreover, a duly con¬ 
stituted patrolman of 
the under chaparral; and 
because he is always 
dressed in sendee khaki, 
instead of the loudly 
advertised blue of 
Sergeant Aphelocoma, he 
is able to come to closer 
grips with the lesser male¬ 
factors of the leafy half¬ 
world. 
It is the impulse of song 
alone which brings the 
Thrasher to plain view. 
Song requires the topmost 
bough of ceanothus or scrub 
oak, and the earnest gesticu¬ 
lations of the sickle-shaped 
mandibles are a commonplace 
to the observer who carries glasses. The song of the California Thrasher 
is most nearly comparable to that of the Mockingbird. It is, however, 
more broken, more impetuous, and a partisan might say of a fresher 
quality—at any rate, less conventional and civilized. The variety of 
utterance is so great, and the changes so incessant, that further character¬ 
ization is useless. Well sounding phrases are often repeated, but hardly 
ever more than once. Indeed, I suppose it is this habit of double phrasing 
to which the California Thrasher, in common with its eastern kinsman, 
the Brown Thrasher (T. rufum ), owes the frequent misnomer, “Thrush.” 
For everyone recalls, instinctively, Browning’s words: 
A PUNGENT BOWER 
the white sage (Salvia apiana) is highly aromatic 
/OO 
