THE BROWN THRASHER 



on fruit or grain by the brown thrasher. The bird 

 is a resident of groves and swamps rather than of 

 orchards and gardens." ^ 

 Range: Eastern United States and southern Canada, westward 

 to tlie Rocky Mts.; winters in south-eastern United 

 States. 



BECAUSE of his brown color and his speckled 

 breast, the Brown Thrasher has often been er- 

 roneously called the Brown Thrush. Careful observation 

 reveals many points of difference. He is three or four 

 inches longer than our common thrushes — in fact, his tail 

 alone is only about 2V2 inches shorter than the entire body 

 of the veery or the hermit thrush; his bill is almost foul 

 times as long as theirs and is decidedly curved. Instead 

 of dark, thrush-like eyes, he has pale yelldw ones that give 

 him an uncanny appearance. 



He is not a dweller in woods, but, like the catbird, pre- 

 fers thickets. Burroughs says: *'The furtive and stealthy 

 manners of the catbird contrast strongly with the frank 

 open manners of the thrushes. Its cousin the brown 

 thrasher goes skulking about in much the same way, flirt- 

 ing from bush to bush like a culprit escaping from justice. 

 But he does love ta sing from the April treetops where all 

 the world may see and hear, if said world does not come 

 too near." ^ 



His song is a brilliant, delightful performance, admir- 

 able in technique, but lacking in a quality of tone that 

 moves the heart. It is often of long duration. One May 

 afternoon, I heard a thrasher singing so long that I was 

 moved to time him. He sang without stopping for fifteen 



• Farmers' Bulletin 755, Biological Survey, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 

 3 From "Under the Maples," bv John Burroughs, p. 67. 



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