194 



MOUNTAIN MOCKING-BIRD. 



Orpheus montanus, Toivns. 

 PLATE CXXXIX.— Male. 



This interesting and hitherto unfigured species was procured on the Rocky- 

 Mountains by Mr. Townsend, who forwarded a single specimen to Phila- 

 delphia, where I made a drawing of it. The following notice by Mr. 

 Nuttall shews that it is nearly allied in its habits to the Mocking-bird: — 



"On the arid plains of the central table-land, betwixt the northern sources 

 of the Platte and the Colorado of the West, in the month of June, we 

 frequently heard the cheering song of this delightful species, whose notes 

 considerably resemble those of the Brown Thrush, with some of the 

 imitative powers of the Mocking-bird. For a great part of the day, and 

 especially early and late, its song resounds through the desert plains, as it 

 warbles to its mate from some tall weed or bush of wormwood, and 

 continues with little interruption nearly for an hour at a time. We met 

 with it in the plains exclusively, till our arrival at Wallah Wallah, but we 

 are not certain of having seen it in any part of California, it being apparently 

 entirely confined to the cooler and open regions of the Rocky Mountains. 

 Just before arriving at Sandy Creek of the Colorado, while resting for 

 refreshment at noon, I had the good fortune to find the nest in a wormwood 

 bush, on the margin of a ravine, from whence the male was singing with its 

 usual energy. It contained four almost emerald green eggs, spotted with 

 dark olive of two shades, more numerous towards the greater end, the spots 

 large and roundish. The nest itself was made of small twigs and rough 

 stalks, lined with stripes of bark and bison wool. The female flew off to a 

 little distance, and looked on her unwelcome and unexpected visiter, without 

 uttering either call or complaint." 



Orpheus montanus, Mountain Mocking-bird, Towns., Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philadel- 

 phia, vol. vii. p. 192. 

 Mountain Mocking-bird, Tardus montanus, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iv. p. 487. 



Bill of moderate length, rather slender, compressed, straightish, pointed; 

 upper mandible with the dorsal line slightly declinato-arcuate, the sides 

 convex toward the end, the edges sharp, with a slight sinus close to the 

 narrow declinate tip; lower mandible with the angle short and narrow, the 



