444 
WRENS, THRASHERS, ETC. 
Remarks. — The pale grayish coloration and the black crescent on the 
tail are good field characters. 
Distribution. — From British Columbia south to Lower California and to 
Chiapas, Mexico ; from western Nebraska to the Pacific ; breeds through¬ 
out its range and is resident from about the southern border of the United 
States southward. 
Nest. — Usually in clefts or crevices among rocks, sometimes in hollow 
stumps or about buildings. Eggs: 7 or 8, w hite, finely spotted on or 
around larger end with chestnut brown. 
Salpinctes! To the worker in the arid regions of the west this 
name calls up most grateful memories. On the wind-blown rocky 
stretches where you seem in a bleak world of granite or lava with 
only rock, rock, everywhere, suddenly, there on a stone before you, 
stands this jolly little wren, looking up at you with a bob and a shy, 
friendly glance. The encounter is as cheering as the sight of a bird 
at sea, and before such meetings have been repeated many times, you 
love the little wren as you do the barking conies that give life and a 
touch of companionship to the barren rock slides of the mountains. 
Even his song, which at first hearing seems the drollest, most un¬ 
bird-like of machine-made tinklings, comes to be greeted as the 
voice of a friend on the desert, and its quality to seem in harmony 
with the hard, gritty granites among which he lives. Its phrases are 
varied, but one of its commonest — given perhaps from the top of a 
cliff while his mate is feeding their brood on a ledge below — is little 
more than a harsh kra-wee, kra-wee, kra-wee, kra-wee, given slowly 
at first, then after a little bob repeated in faster time. 
As you watch him he seems well fitted to escape his enemies who 
soar over the mountains, for he is a perfect rock color, and his only 
striking mark is the black fan-shaped band that flashes from his tail 
as he disappears from view. 
Altitude seems to make little difference with him, but when not in 
mountains he is usually found in regions of rocks, cliffs, or canyons. 
Dr. Mearns reported him from the summit of San Francisco Moun¬ 
tain, Arizona, at a time when the hollows wefe filled with ice and 
snow and fierce storms were raging. 
GENUS CATHERPES. 
General Characters. — Bill about as long as head, longer than tarsus; 
side toes of unequal lengths ; wing longer than tail. 
KEY TO ADULTS. 
1. Darker colored. Lower Rio Grande. albifrons, p. 445. 
1'. Lighter colored. 
2. Larger, bill longer, spotting on back not so thick. Great Basin and 
Rocky Mountain region. conspersus, p. 445. 
2'. Smaller, bill shorter, spotting on back thicker. Oregon and Cali¬ 
fornia west of Cascades and Sierra Nevada . punctulatus, p. 445. 
