JxN., ?9o2. I THE CONDOR ?5 The Crissal Thrasher in California. BY 3/1. F. GII?MAN? HIS thrasher, ]farjborhfnchus cris- salis, is not always listed as a Cali- forniabird, but nevertheless it is quite common in portions of the Colo- rado desert this side of the Colorado River. Great numbers of them can be found in the dense thickets of mesquite and screw-bean in the depressed por- tion of the desert near the Salton sink. In what is known as "Conchilia Valley," which is west of Salton, lying from ?o to 260 below sea level, are found several new settlements, embryo towns--Indio, Thermal and Walters, and the old In- dian villages of Toros, Martinez and Agua Dulce. Near all these places the mesquite and screxv-bean make great thickets and the crissal thrasher is at home. Twenty miles west of the rim of the ancient sea and about 500 feet above its level, is Palm Springs, a small settle- ment in what is called Palm Valley. From here the desert narrows till it merges intoSan Gorgonio Pass twenty miles to the west,--a narrow valley or pass 2,500 feet elevation, between San Gorgonio and San Jacinto peaks, t t,9oo and to, Boo feet high. In such a range of life zones--from sub-tropical to Hud- sonjan-the diversity of species is great and there is much over-lapping. In twenty miles you may go from groves of native wild pahus,--(F?ash- in?tonia filifera), to bare mountain peaks above timber-line and carrying snow most of the year; and a summer temperature of from x3 o in the shade to below freezing point; and a range of birds from the verdin, Leconte thrasher and Gambel partridge to Clarke nut- cracker, thick-billed sparrow, and Audu- bon warbler. In January t899 I secured my first crissal thrasher at Palm Springs. Later in the season I noticed a pair about, and on May 4 secured a set of three eggs. The nest differed little from the Califor- nia thrasher, being more compactly built and not quite so bulky. It was in a mesquite three feet from the ground and built close under a large branch, so there was hardly room to get my hand into the nest. The eggs slightly incub- ated, were a little smaller and shorter than those of the California thrasher, and plain green in color. The bird was very shy, and I never succeeded in seeing her on the nest, she always slip- ping out on the opposite side before I could approach very near. In March ?9o?, in company with Nathan Hatgrave of Banning, another bird lover, I made a trip to Toros and Martinez to study these birds where they were more numerous. On March ?8 and ?9 we found ten nests contain- ing eggs or young. With one exception they were all built close up to an over- hanging limb making it difficult to in- sert the hand. All but one were also in the densest part of the mesquite and rather hard to see. And hard to get at too as anyone who has crawled through a mesquite thicket can testify. The nests were from 2 to 6 feet from the ground--the average being about 3 feet and only one 6 feet. The sets were , and ?--about evenly dis- tributed as to number of each. The nests contained in some cases, fresh eggs--in others incubation far ad- vanced and one had young birds in it. From brief observation I should say that individual birds nest near the same spot year after year. Nearly every nest found was near from one to three old nests, probably belonging to the same bird as no new nests were ever found close to each other. In one case three nests were found in the same tree --one new and two old ones. The number of old nests made more work for us, as we examined all seen. In such a dry climate with the annual rainfall from nil to possibly four inches, a year-old nest does not differ so much from a new one as might be expected
