440 
WRENS, THRASHERS, ETC. 
brown, outer feathers tipped with white ; under parts brownish white, 
indistinctly spotted with brown; flanks brownish. Young: similar, but 
wings and rump washed with tawny 
buff; under parts whiter, with nar¬ 
rower streaks. Length : 9.50-10.50, 
_. , wing 3.90-4.20, tail 4.25-4.90, exposed 
F.g. 564. Bendire Thraaher. CU 1 " en .87-.951 
Distribution. — Breeds in desert regions of Upper and Lower Sonoran 
zones, in Arizona and southeastern California; accidental in Colorado. 
Nest. — In trees, bushes, or cactus, small and daintily built for a 
thrasher, of sticks and grass, lined with soft materials, such as grass, 
horsehair, rootlets, wool, or feathers. Eggs: 3 or 4, generally greenish 
white, spotted with pale reddish brown, usually heaviest about the larger 
end; sometimes grayish or pinkish white, spotted with salmon and lav¬ 
ender. 
Mr. Herbert Brown, who has an extended acquaintance with the 
Bendire thrasher, says it is largely confined to the central part of 
southern Arizona, unlike palmeri seldom or never leaving the flat 
country. It is migratory, smaller and less common than palmeri, 
and strangely silent for a thrasher. Only once in all his expe¬ 
rience has Mr. Brown heard it give its splendid song, and only 
rarely, when disturbed at the nest, has he heard it give its call of 
tirup , tirup, tirup. 
Subgenus Harporhynchus. 
Bill longer than head ; breast not spotted. 
710. Toxostoma redivivum ( Gamb .). Californian Thrasher. 
Upper parts dull dark grayish brown ; wings and tail unmarked, tail dark¬ 
er ; under parts, including throat , 
dull buffy or brownish, darker on 
chest; under tail coverts tawny. 
Length: 11.50-13.00, wing 3.90- 
4.30, tail 4.90-5.80, bill 1.35-1.75. 
Distribution. — Coast region of California ; south to Lower California. 
Nest. — In bushes, a rude platform of twigs, roots, grasses, and leaves. 
Eggs: 3 or 4, light greenish blue, speckled with clove brown. 
The California thrasher is one of the most vociferously rollicking 
jolly good fellows of his tribe. Perched on top of the highest bush 
in sight, he shouts out kick'-it-now, kick'-it-now, shut'-up, shut'-up, 
dor'-o-thy, dor'-o-thy; and then with a rapid change of mood, drawls 
out, whoa-now, whoa'-now. It is easy to imagine such a bird a wag 
and mimic, and attention has recently been called to his imitative 
power by Mr. John J. Williams. He says that interwoven with its 
own song are the quare, quare, quare of the California jay, the 
quirring note of the slender-billed nuthatch, and the cackling note 
of the red-shafted flicker, besides the call of the valley quail, the 
kicee-kwee-kuk of the western robin, and the trill of the wren-tit, 
which the mimic does so well that the birds answer back. 
Fig. 565. 
