_Orpheus montanus_, TOWNSEND, Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. VII, II,
1837, 192.—AUD. Birds Amer. II, 1841, 194, pl. cxxxix. _Turdus
montanus_, AUD. Orn. Biog. IV, 1838, 437, pl. ccclxix, fig. 1.
_Mimus montanus_, BONAP. Consp. 1850, 276. _Oreoscoptes montanus_,
BAIRD, Birds N. Amer. 1858, 347; Rev. Am. B. 1864, 42.—SCLATER,
P. Z. S. 1859, 340.—IB. Catal. 1861, 8, no. 30.—COOPER, Birds
Cal. 1, 12.
SP. CHAR. First quill rather shorter than the sixth. Tail slightly
graduated. Above brownish-ash; each feather obsoletely darker in the
centre. Beneath dull white, thickly marked with triangular spots,
except on the under tail-coverts and around the anus, which regions
are tinged with yellowish-brown. Wing-coverts and quills edged with
dull white. Tail feathers brown; the outer edged, and all (except,
perhaps, the middle) tipped with white. Length, 8 inches; wing, 4.85;
tail, 4.00; tarsus, 1.21.
_Young._ Similar, but spots beneath less sharply defined, and the
upper parts quite conspicuously streaked with dusky.
HAB. Rocky Mountains of United States, west to Pacific, south to Cape
St. Lucas.
[Illustration: _Oreoscoptes montanus._]
The careful observations of Mr. Robert Ridgway have led him to the
conviction that the name bestowed upon this species of “Mountain
Mocking-Bird” is doubly a misnomer. It is not at all imitative in its
notes, and it is almost exclusively a resident of the artemisia
plains. It seems to be chiefly confined to the great central plateau
of North America, from Mexico almost to Washington Territory.
Specimens have been procured from Cape St. Lucas, the Lower Colorado,
Mexico, and Texas, on the south, and Nuttall met with it nearly as far
north as Walla-Walla. It probably occupies the whole extent of the
Great Basin.
Dr. Kennerly, who met with it while crossing the arid _mesas_ west of
the Rio Grande, says that while singing it was usually perched upon
some bush or low tree. It was frequently seen seeking its food upon
the ground, and when approached, instead of flying away, it ran very
rapidly, and disappeared among the low bushes.
During the winter months it was observed near San Antonio, Texas, by
Mr. Dresser; and was also found by him to be common about Eagle Pass.
He noticed the same peculiarity of their running instead of their
flying away when disturbed. They preferred the flat, bush-covered
plains. A few remained to breed, as he obtained the eggs there,
although he did not himself meet with one of the birds in summer.
It is generally represented as keeping chiefly on the ground, and
obtaining its food in this position. General Couch speaks of it as
Sparrow-like in its habits.
Mr. Nuttall describes its song as cheering, and the notes of which it
is composed as decidedly resembling those of the Brown Thrush
(_Harporhynchus rufus_). He claims for it some of the imitative powers
of the Mocking-Bird (_Mimus polyglottus_), but in this he is not
supported by the observations of others. He met with its nest in a
wormwood (_Artemisia_) bush on the border of a ravine; it contained
four eggs of emerald green, spotted with dark olive, the spots being
large, roundish, and more numerous at the larger end. The nest was
composed of small twigs and rough stalks, and lined with strips of
bark and bison-wool. The female flew off to a short distance, and
looked at her unwelcome visitors without uttering any complaint.
The nests of this bird, so far as I have seen them, are all flat,
shallow structures, with very slight depression, and loosely and
rudely constructed of an intermingling of strips of bark with rootlets
and the finer stems of herbaceous plants. Their eggs, usually four in
number, do not vary essentially in size, shape, or marking. They
measure 1 inch in length, and from .73 to .75 in breadth. Their ground
color is a bright greenish-blue, marked with deep olive-brown spots,
intermingled with blotches of a light lilac. There are slight
variations in the proportion of green in the shade of the ground
color, and also in the number and size of the spots, but these
variations are unimportant.
The following are Mr. Ridgway’s observations upon the habits of this
species. They are full, valuable, and very carefully made:—
The _Oreoscoptes montanus_ is a bird peculiar to the artemisia wastes
of the Great Basin, being a characteristic species of the region
between the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains. It is exclusively
an inhabitant of the “sage brush,” and is partial to the lower
portions of the country, though it is not unfrequent on the open slope
of the mountains. A more unappropriate term than “Mountain
Mocking-Bird” could hardly have been chosen for this species, as its
predilection for the valleys, and the fact that its song is _entirely_
its own, will show. In my opinion, the term “Sage Thrasher” would be
more appropriate.
In the neighborhood of Carson City, Nevada, these birds arrived about
the 24th of March, and immediately upon their arrival began singing.
At this time, with the _Sturnella neglecta_ and _Poospiza belli_, they
made sweet music in the afternoon and early morning, in the open
wastes of “sage brush,” around the city. The birds when singing were
generally seen sitting upon the summit of a “sage” bush, faintly
warbling, in the course of the song turning the head from side to side
in a watchful manner. Upon being approached, they would dart downward,
seemingly diving into the bush upon which they had perched, but upon a
close search the bird could not be found, until it was heard again
singing a hundred yards or more in the direction from which I had
approached. This peculiar, circuitous, concealed flight is a very
characteristic trait of this bird, and one sure to excite attention.
As the season advanced, or about the 10th of April, when the pairing
season was at hand, the songs of the males became greatly improved,
increasing in sweetness and vivacity, and full of rapturous emotion;
their manners, also, became changed, for they had lost all their
wariness. In paying their attentions to their mates, the males would
fly from bush to bush, with a peculiar, tremulous fluttering of the
wings, which, when the bird alighted, were raised above the back
apparently touching each other; all the while vibrating with the
emotion and ecstasy that agitated the singer.
The song of this bird, though very deficient in power,—in this
respect equalling no other species of _Miminæ_ with which I am
acquainted,—is nevertheless superior to most of them in sweetness,
vivacity, and variety. It has a wonderful resemblance to the beautiful
subtle warbling of the _Regulus calendula_, having in fact very much
the same style, with much of the tone, and about the power of the song
of the _Pyranga rubra_.
When the birds are engaged in incubation, the males become very
silent, and one not familiar with their habits earlier in the season
would think they never had a voice; in fact, they make no
protestations even when the nest is disturbed, for, while blowing the
eggs, I have had the parent birds running around me, in the manner of
a robin, now and then halting, stretching forward their heads, and
eying me in the most anxious manner, but remaining perfectly silent.
When the young are hatched the parents become more solicitous,
signifying their concern by a low, subdued _chuck_. At all times when
the nest is approached, the bird generally leaves it slyly before one
approaches very near it.
The nest is very bulky, composed externally of rough sticks,
principally the thorny twigs of the various “sage bush” plants. Nearer
the centre the principal material is fine strips of inner bark of
these plants; and the lining consists of finer strips of bark, mingled
with fine roots, and bits of rabbit fur. The situation of the nest
varies but little, being generally placed near the middle of a bush,
that is, about eighteen inches from the ground. It is generally
supported against the main trunk, upon a horizontal branch. Several
were found upon the ground beneath the bush, one, in fact, embedded in
the soil, like that of a _Pipilo_; or as sometimes the case with the
_Harporhynchus rufus_, others, again, were found in brush-heaps. In
all cases, the nest was very artfully concealed, the situation being
so well selected.
This bird is almost equally common in all parts of its habitat, within
the limits indicated. In June, we found it abundant on the large
islands in the Great Salt Lake, where many nests were found.
In autumn, it feeds, in company with many other birds, upon berries,
“service berries” being its especial favorite.