Habits. The eggs of this species are hardly distinguishable from those of the common Brown Thrasher (H. rufus), of the Atlantic States. The color of their ground is a greenish-white, which is thickly, and usually completely, covered with fine markings of a yellowish-brown. They have an average length of 1.13 inches, by .79 in breadth. So far as I have had an opportunity of observing, they do not vary from these measurements more than two per cent in length or one per cent in breadth. Their nests are usually a mere platform of small sticks or coarse stems, with little or no depression or rim, and are placed in low bushes, usually above the upper branches.
In regard to the distinctive habits of this species I have no information.
Harporhynchus cinereus, Xantus.
CAPE ST. LUCAS THRASHER.
Harporhynchus cinereus, Xantus, Pr. A. N. Sc. 1859, 298.—Baird, Ib., 303; Review, 46.—Sclater, Catal. 1861, 8, No. 49.—Elliot, Illust., I. pl. i.—Cooper, Birds Cal. 1, 19.
Sp. Char. Bill as long as the head; all the lateral outlines gently decurved from the base. Bristles not very conspicuous, but reaching to the nostrils. Wings considerably shorter than the tail, much rounded. First primary broad, nearly half the length of the second; the third to the seventh quills nearly equal, their tips forming the outline of a gentle curve; the second quill shorter than the ninth. Tail considerably graduated, the lateral feathers more than an inch the shorter. Legs stout; tarsi longer than middle toe, distinctly scutellate, with seven scales.
Above ashy brown, with perhaps a tinge of rusty on the rump; beneath fulvous-white, more fulvous on the flanks, inside of wing, and crissum. Beneath, except chin, throat, and from middle of abdomen to crissum, with well-defined V-shaped spots of dark brown at the ends of the feathers, largest across the breast. Loral region hoary. Wings with two narrow whitish bands across the tips of greater and middle coverts; the quills edged externally with paler. Outer three tail-feathers with a rather obsolete white patch in the end of inner web, and across the tips of the outer.
Spring specimens are of rather purer white beneath, with the spots more distinct than as described.
Length of 12,960 (skin), 10.00; wing, 4.10; tail, 4.65; first primary, 1.60; second, 2.50; bill from gape, 1.40, from above, 1.15, from nostril, .90; tarsus, 1.26; middle toe and claw, 1.12; claw alone, .30.
Hab. Cape St. Lucas, Lower California.