THRASHERS, ETC.: CURVE-BILLED THRASHER 555 
They probably enter the State from the east and do not occur in southern New Mexico 
even in migration.—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —In bushes, made of sticks, leaves, bark, and rootlets. Eggs: Usually 4, 
deep greenish blue, unspotted. 
Food. —Adults: insects, 44 per cent; vegetable matter, 56 per cent, fruit (wild and 
cultivated). “In most parts of the country it does far more good than harm” 
(Beal). Nestlings: insects, 96 per cent, largely injurious species (Gabrielson). 
General Habits. —Closely related to the Mockingbird and with a 
song that does its relationship no great discredit, the Catbird has 
acquired its unfortunate name from its mewing call. In cultivated 
districts it becomes one of the familiar favorites of shrubbery and 
gardens, coming readily to drink and bathe in the bird bowls offered 
for its comfort. It is interesting to hear that it has been found nesting, 
off College Street, in the city of Santa Fe. 
Near the Taos Pueblo, where a number of the birds were seen, 
as we drove along the road we were attracted by the outcries of a pair, 
and in the adjoining thicket found the nest, empty except for the 
pitiful little decapitated body of the last young one; the murderous 
villain having slunk out of reach. 
Additional Literature.—Fry, H. J., Auk, XXXIII, 29-31, 1916 (song, rise 
and decline).— Gabrielson, I. N., Wilson Bull., XXV, 166-187, 1913 (nest life).— 
Herrick, F. H., Home Life of Wild Birds, 76-79, 1901.— Stone, Witmer, Educa¬ 
tional Leaflet No. 70, Nat. Assoc. Audubon Soc.— Whittle, H. G., Auk, XL, 603- 
606, 1923 (nesting). 
CURVE-BILLED THRASHER: Tox6stoma curvirostre curvir6stre (Swainson) 
Plate 60 
Description. — Length: About 10.5-11.4 inches, wing 4.1-4.5, tail 4.4-4.0, bill 
1.1-1.3, tarsus 1.2-1.3. Bill not longer than head, curved. Adults: Upperparts 
light brownish gray; wings and tail darker brown, tail with four pairs of outer feathers 
strikingly tipped with white , wings with two narrow white bars; throat white, breast 
and sides thickly spotted and clouded with gray, flanks buffy; iris orange or red. In 
worn summer dress the wing bars and spotting of underparts are not evident. Young 
in juvenal plumage: Similar, but lower back and rump browner, underparts more 
streaked than in adult. 
Range. —Arid parts of Sonoran and Tropical Zones from southern New Mexico 
and Texas south to Vera Cruz and Oaxaca. 
State Records. —The Curve-billed Thrashers of southwestern New Mexico 
are intermediates but nearer curvirostre than palmeri, and those of Cactus Flat and 
Silver City are almost pure curvirostre. The species is a common breeder in two 
sections of New Mexico, the first including the Guadalupe Mountains to 6,200 feet 
(Bailey); the salt flats west of them, and up the south end of the Sacramento Moun¬ 
tains as far north as Weed (Hollister); and Lower Penasco (Ligon); that is, to about 
6,000 feet. A fully grown bird of the year was taken June 27, 1903, in the foothills 
of the Capitan Mountains (Gaut). The other area includes southwestern New 
Mexico north to Pleasanton, and Cactus Flat (Goldman); Silver City (Ilunn); 
Fort Bayard (Wilson); and Chloride (Ligon). Eggs have been found at the last 
