439 
WRENS, THRASHERS, ETC. 
but is much less common, only a few of the brown birds being seen, 
while the pale, clay-colored curve-bill ranks as one of the commonest 
brush birds. 
707. Toxostoma curvirostre (Swains.). Curve -billed 
Thrasher. 
Adults. — Upper parts light brownish gray ; wings with two narrow white 
bars; tail blackish , four pairs of outer feathers 
strikingly tipped with white; throat white; 
breast and sides thickly spotted and clouded 
with gray ; flanks huffy. Young: similar, 562 - 
but wing coverts and rump tinged with fulvous, and markings on breast 
narrower and darker. Length : 10.50-11.40, wing 4.15-4.55, tail 4.40-4.65, 
exposed culmen 1.10-1.30. 
Distribution. — Lower Sonoran zone from New Mexico and western Texas 
to Oaxaca, Mexico. 
Nest. — In cactus and trees, made of thorny twigs lined with a few 
grasses. Eggs : 3 or 4, colored like those of palmeri. 
The curve-billed thrasher is abundant and tame as you go through 
the thorn brush of southern Texas, especially as you approach 
Mexico. Its big clay-colored figure is largely in evidence, perched 
on the brush or flying on short wings with long tilting tail across the 
road. Cactus, yuccas, and thorn brush are all liberally supplied 
with its big thorny nests. When we were photographing one the 
owner came so close that we could see the bright red of its eyes. As 
the birds watched us they gave their liquid two-syllabled call, which 
is one of the loud, dominant notes of the country. In a dry wash in 
southern New Mexico, when we were preparing to photograph one 
of the yucca nests, the brooding bird, who had been entirely hidden 
by the yucca spears, quietly slipped out of the nest and disappeared 
in the brush. 
707a. T. C. palmeri (Coues). Palmer Thrasher. 
Upper parts uniform dark brownish gray or grayish brown; wings with 
bars obsolete or wanting; tail indistinctly tipped with lighter; throat 
whitish; rest of under parts 
grayish, obsoletely spotted with 
darker. Length: 11.00-11.50, 
wing 4.20-4.60, tail 4.80-5.20, 
exposed culmen 1.18-1.40. 563 * 
Distribution. — Resident in Lower Sonoran zone in southern Arizona 
and Sonora, Mexico. 
Nest. — In cactus, of sticks, usually lined with dried grass. Eggs : 2 to 
4, pale bluish green, finely and uniformly speckled with brown. 
The Palmer thrasher is abundant on the cactus deserts of southern 
Arizona, being resident up to 3000 feet. 
708. Toxostoma bendirei (Coues). Bendire Thrasher. 
Upper parts pale grayish brown; wings with indistinct bars; tail dark 
