WRENS, THRASHERS, ETC. 
435 
7'. Back rusty brown. 
Thryothorus, p. 446. 
Fig. 556. 
GENUS OROSCOPTES. 
702. Oroscoptes montanus (Towns.). Sage Thrasher. 
Bill much shorter than head ; rictal bristles well developed; wings and 
tail of equal length ; tail graduated. 
Adults: upper parts dull grayish 
brown, indistinctly streaked; wings 
with two narrow white bars; tail with 
inner web of 2 to 4 outer feathers 
tipped with white ; under parts whitish, 
huffy on flanks and under tail coverts; breast and sides marked with brown 
to sooty spots. Young: like adults, but upper parts indistinctly streaked 
with darker, and streaks on under parts less sharply defined. Length: 8- 
9, wing 3.95-4.19, tail 3.20-3.35, bill .60-.65. 
Distribution. — Sage plains from M ontana south to northern Mexico and 
Lower California, and from western Nebraska to the Cascades and the 
Sierra Nevada. 
Nest. — Bulky, composed largely of coarse plant stems, dry sage 
shreds, and sage bark, lined with fine rootlets, and sometimes hair; placed 
usually in sagebrush. Eggs: 3 to 5, rich greenish blue, spotted with clove 
brown. 
The sage thrasher, and the Brewer, Bell, and lark sparrows, are 
among the commonest birds of the sagebrush country, and the sage 
thrasher’s big gray body with its white tail corners shows from a 
distance as he disappears with long undulating flight over the face 
of the sage plain. 
In the land of telegraph poles he often mounts one to sing, but 
his commonest perch is the top of a tall sage bush, and as his song 
is poured out even long after dark and sometimes by moonlight, 
with scarcely less richness than the true thrasher’s, you are glad he 
lives in the deserts. In winter he leaves the sagebrush and wanders 
south over the lower valleys. 
GENUS MIMUS. 
703a. Mimus polyglottos leucopterus (Vigors). Western 
Mockingbird. ' 
Bill much shorter than head, notched near end; rictal bristles well 
developed ; wings rounded ; tail longer than wings, rounded ; tarsus longer 
than middle toe and claw ; scales of tarsus distinct. Adults: upper parts 
grayish drab ; wings and tail blackish, wings with large white patch at base 
of primaries, wing bars, white-tipped wing quills, and tertials with whitish 
edgings; under parts white, washed with clay color. Young : more brown¬ 
ish above; back indistinctly spotted or streaked ; breast spotted. Male : 
wing 4.29-4.72, tail 4.53-5.32, bill .61-.75. Female: wing 4.25-4.65, tail 
4.43-5.08, bill .59-71. 
Distribution. — Southwestern United States from the Gulf of Mexico 
Fig. 557. 
