WRENS, THRASHERS, ETC. 
441 
When he is singing, the thrasher’s bill makes him look comically as 
if he were trying to turn himself inside out; but the bill, awkward 
as it appears, is really an admirable pickaxe. Instead of having to 
depend on his feet for scratching away the leaves, as the short¬ 
billed birds do, the thrasher clears the ground by rapid strokes of 
the bill, and then probes the earth with it for his food. 
710a. T. r. pasadenense Grinnell. Pasadena Thrasher. 
Similar to redivivum, but duller ; throat white; chest band darker than in 
redivivum. Wing: 3.92, tail 5.30, bill from nostril 1.21. 
Distribution. — Interior of southern California. 
711. Toxostoma lecontei Lawr. Leconte Thrasher. 
Adults. — Upper parts pale brownish gray; wings unmarked; tail dis¬ 
tinctly tipped with lighter; throat 
white ; rest of under parts dove color 
and whitish; under tail coverts bright 
tawny brown. Young: similar, but 
upper tail coverts more rusty, and 
under tail coverts paler. Length : 10.50-11.00, wing 3.70-3.90, tail 4.57- 
5.20, bill 1.08-1.35. 
Distribution. — Resident in Lower Sonoran zone in the desert region 
from southwestern Utah to southern California, and south to Sonora, 
Mexico. 
Nest. — Very bulky, composed of thorny twigs, grasses, and weeds, 
lined with grass and feathers, and placed in cactus bushes or mesquite 
trees. Eggs: 3 or 4, pale bluish green or greenish blue, minutely and 
rather sparsely speckled with reddish brown, or yellowish brown and 
lavender. 
In the lowest, hottest, barest deserts of the country, where 
dwarfed thorn bushes, queer species of cactus, and rigid Spanish 
bayonets space the baked mesas and valleys, the Leconte thrasher 
is one of the most interesting bits of desert life. The sand-colored 
bird seems, like all of its surroundings, to have had the color baked 
out of it, or like them to have taken on the colors which best fit it 
to endure the desert temperature, sometimes 130° in the shade, and 
much higher in the glaring sun. After a cool night on the desert 
in March, when the morning air is loaded with the fragrance of 
abronias, yuccas, and primroses, and the crimson and gold cups of 
the cactus are brilliant among the creosote bushes, the thrashers are 
heard fairly splitting their throats from the mesquite tops, and seen 
running about chasing each other over the bare stretches between 
the bushes. Later in the day they rest in the shade of the chapar¬ 
ral, and if frightened simply run from one cover to another, rarely 
flying to escape pursuit. They easily outrun a man, and if followed 
soon disappear, going with head low and tail straight out behind 
like the road-runner, keeping always on the far side of each bunch 
of bushes. With a good horse one can usually force them to take 
Fig. 566. 
