476 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



it to his advantage to have a clear field for his operations. In the autumn 

 the Catbird's food consists largely of wild fruit. After all has been said, 

 we must consider the Catbird less agreeable as a neighbor than the Robin 

 or even the Cedarbird, for its scolding notes become exceedingly monot- 

 onous, especially when they are uttered day after day, as usually happens 

 whenever the owner of the premises appears. He becomes more incon- 

 spicuous as a neighbor after the first week of August, sometimes singing 

 slightly for a week or two before his departure in October, after the moult 

 has been completed. 



Toxostoma rufum (Linnaeus) 

 Brown Thrasher 



Plate 101 



T urdus rufus Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. Ed. 10. 1758. 1:169 

 Orpheus rufus DeKay. Zoo!. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 68, fig. 82 

 Toxostoma rufum A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 332. No. 705 

 toxostoma, from Gr., bow-mouth, that is, curved-billed; riifum, Lat., reddish 



Description. Upper parts bright rufous or reddish brown; the wing 

 coverts tipped with buffy whitish tending to form 2 wing bars; under parts 

 buffy whitish heavily streaked with black except on the throat and center 

 of the abdomen. Whenever the amateur sees a brown-backed bird longer 

 than a Robin, with heavily spotted breast and long rounded tail, he may be 

 sure it is a Thrasher. 



Length 11. 5-12 inches; extent 12. 5-14; wing 3.8-4.25; tail 5; bill 1; 

 tarsus 1.3. 



Distribution. The Brown thrasher inhabits eastern North America 

 from southern Alberta and Manitoba, northern Michigan, southern Ontario, 

 southern Quebec and southern Maine to eastern Louisiana, Mississippi, 

 Alabama and northern Florida. Winters from southern Missouri and North 

 Carolina to Texas and southern Florida. In New York its range coincides 

 very closely with that of the Catbird, but it is less common than that 

 species, especially in the colder portions of the State. The spring migration 

 is performed between the 15th and 25th of April in the warmer counties, 

 from the 1st to the 10th of May in the northern portions. It sometimes 

 appears about New York City as early as the 2d of April, and disappears 



