This bird's remarkable speed and confidence in its legs instead of wings to escape danger, is surpassed only by the Roadrunner. They easily out-distance a trotting horse and if winged by shot will escape from a man afoot. They dodge with catlike cleverness and take advantage of any cover. When forced awing, it flies low, keeping out of sight until it makes an upward sweep to a bush top, where it can see its pursuer.
More remarkable than its running ability is its capacity for enduring the terrific desert heat — often 120 degrees in the shade! (Lord knows what in the sun!) Tho this searing heat bleaches their plumage it does not affect their cheery dispositions.
Altho the song has a more metallic ring than the Mockingbirds, it is not much inferior. The notes are so loud and resonant that they can be heard nearly a mile away. When the desert lies in tomblike silence under immoderately brilliant stars, the inspiring nocturne of this great singer will send the listeners thots far, far beyond the twinkling diamonds.
NEST: A remarkably large and loose collection of thorny twigs, weed stems, leaves and grass, lined with finer grass and usually built in thick cholla or mesquite brush.
EGGS: 2–4: pale greenish blue sparingly specked with minute spots of chestnut, raw umber and lavender
Deserts of southern California, Utah and southern Nevada.
This subspecies probably does not differ in habits from Leconte Thrasher, except its restriction to Lower California between latitudes 28 and 30!
A tree up to 80 feet, trunk branchless for 50–60 feet, isolated or grouped in depression of Colorado desert in southern California.