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THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



An Experience with the Brown 

 Thrasher. 



BY MANLEY B. TOWNSEND, NASHUA, NEW 

 HAMPSHIRE. 



Most of us usually consider the 

 brown thrasher a wild, shy bird. And 

 such he is, under ordinary circum- 

 stances. But individual birds vary 

 greatly, perhaps as widely as human 

 beings. No two birds are exactly alike 

 in form, color or disposition. Neither 

 are any two human beings. 



Several years ago, when living at 

 Sioux City, Iowa, in the Middle West, 

 I had a rather remarkable experience 

 with a nesting brown thrasher. The 

 nest was located in a small spruce in a 

 cemetery where nested a number of in- 

 teresting birds, among them the bob- 

 white, orchard oriole, Arkansas king- 

 bird, bronzed grackle, flicker, yellow 

 warbler, warbling vireo, mourning 

 dove, catbird and others. 



When discovered and approached, 

 the bird clung closely to the nest and 

 refused to leave, even when my hand 

 was placed directly over her. At first 

 she showed fight, picking at the hand 

 with sufficient force to draw blood. 

 Gradually, however, she became accus- 

 tomed to my presence and at last sat 

 •contentedly on her precious eggs while 

 I stroked her from the top of her head 

 to the tip of her tail. Eventually she 

 developed the greatest friendliness, and 

 sat and ate worms from my hand, or 



'•SAT CONTENTEDLY ON HER PRECIOUS 

 EGGS WHILE I STROKED HER." 



took them to feed to the young birds. 



One of our party put numbered 

 aluminum bands on the legs of the 

 young to ascertain whether or not 

 they would return to their native 

 home. The next spring the birds with 

 the bands were back again and nest- 

 ing in the same cemetery. 



The brown thrasher, or brown 

 thrush as he is commonly called, is in 

 every way a splendid bird. Beauti- 

 fully dressed, slim and trim, in long- 

 tailed brown coat and polka-dotted 

 waistcoat, a songster of wonderful 

 vocal accomplishment, rivaling the 

 famed mocking bird, of which he is 

 a cousin, and vastly helpful to man as 

 a destroyer of noxious insects, he de- 

 serves the affection of every lover of 

 beauty and the gratitude of every one 

 that values the birds as an economic 

 asset in the "balance of nature." 



THE NEST OF THE BROWN THRASHER IN A 

 WILD GOOSEBERRY BUSH. 



Watering Birds and Observing Cater- 

 pillars. 



Red Bank, New Jersey. 

 To the Editor :- 



One of my friends said to me the 

 other day, "Why don't you build a 

 house on that back lot of yours and 

 rent it?"' 1 said, "I would not live on 

 the place if a house were already 

 there." 



My home is on a lot that is well 

 grown up with bushes and small trees. 

 Most of the birds in the neighborhood 

 stay about the place. I can look out 

 at anytime in the winter or the sum- 

 mer and see birds. In winter there 

 are the sparrows which everybody 



