_Orpheus longirostris_, LAFR. R. Z. 1838, 55.—IB. Mag. de Zool.
1839, Ois. pl. i. _Toxostoma longirostre_, CAB. Wiegm. Arch. 1847,
I. 207. _Mimus longirostris_, SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1856, 294
(Cordova). _Harporhynchus longirostris_, CAB. Mus. Hein. 1850,
81.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 352, pl. lii.—IB. Rev.
44.—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1859, 339; IB. 1864, 172 (City of Mex.);
IB. Catal. 1861, 8, no. 47.
SP. CHAR. Similar to _H. rufus_, the rufous of back much darker. Wings
much rounded; second quill shorter than the secondaries. Exposed
portion of the bill as long as the head; the lower edge decidedly
decurved or concave. Above rather dark brownish-rufous; beneath pale
rufous-white; streaked on the sides of the neck and body, and across
the breast, with very dark brownish-black, nearly uniform throughout,
much darker than in _rufus_. Two rather narrow white bands on the
wings. The concealed portion of the quills dark brown. Length, 10.50;
wing, 4.00; tail, 5.00; tarsus, 1.40.
HAB. Eastern Mexico; north to Rio Grande, Texas. Cordova, SCL. Orizaba
(temperate region), SUMICHRAST.
Specimens from the Rio Grande to Mirador and Orizaba are quite
identical, with, of course, differences among individuals. This
“species” is not, in our opinion, separable from the _H. rufus_
specifically; but is a race, representing the latter in the region
given above, where the _rufus_ itself is never found. The relations of
these two forms are exactly paralleled in the _Thryothorus
ludovicianus_ and _T. berlandieri_, the latter being nothing more than
the darker Southern representation of the former.
The Texas Thrasher appears to belong only to the Avifauna of the
Southwest. It first appears as a bird of the valley of the Rio Grande,
and extends from thence southward through Eastern Mexico to Cordova
and Orizaba. In Arizona it is replaced by _H. palmeri_, _H. lecontei_,
and _H. crissalis_, in California by _H. redivivus_, and at Cape St.
Lucas by _H. cinereus_, while in the United States east of the Rocky
Mountains it is represented by its nearer ally _H. rufus_.
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.