Western Bird Guide: Birds of the Rockies and West to the Pacific

by Charles K. Reed

CRISSAL THRASHER.

712. Toxostoma crissale. 11 inches.

Range.—From Utah and Nevada to southern and Lower California and Texas. This species is somewhat darker, and more rufous on the under tail coverts than the above.

CACTUS WREN.

713. Heleodytes brunneicapillus. 8½ inches.

Range.—Southern part of California, to Texas, and north to Nevada and Utah. They are the largest of the Wrens, and look the least like that family of any of them. They are a common bird in the desert lands, where the cactus abounds, but lacks the sweet song of some of the smaller members of the family. Their nests are bulky, ball-shaped structures, made up of sticks, moss, grass, and lined with feathers. There is an opening on the side for an entrance, and it is usually placed in a thorn bush or cactus. Their four to seven eggs are creamy white, dotted thickly with chestnut (.95 × .65).

ROCK WREN.

715. Salpinctes obsoletus. 6 inches.

Range.—Western coasts from British America to Mexico. These bird are equally at home on the mountain sides or in the deep canyons, building their nests in the crevices of rocks or stumps, where they lay from five to eight white eggs, with fine spots of brown about the larger end (.72 × .50).