BIRD BIOGRAPHIES 



minutes by my watch, and his entire song must have lasted 

 nearly half an hour. 



The brown thrasher, like the other members of his fam- 

 ily, has power of mimicry. In the north, he is sometimes 

 called the "Northern Mocker"; in some regions where he 

 and the mockingbird both live, he is known as the "Sandy 

 Mocker." There is sufficient similarity in the songs of the 

 catbird, the thrasher, and the mockingbird to make a lis- 

 tener pause a moment to distinguish them when in a lo- 

 cality where the three birds are to be found. The cat- 

 bird's mew betrays him; the thrasher's song is more bril- 

 liant and sustained; the mocker's more varied. Thoreau 

 says, "The thrasher has a sort of laugh in his strain that 

 the catbird has not." '* His song resembles decidedly that 

 of the English thrush, famed in poetry. Browning's des- 

 cription of the latter is equally applicable to our thrasher: 



"He sings each song twice over, 



Lest you should think he never could recapture 



That first fine careless rapture." 



*From "Notes on New England Birds," Thoreau, p. 361. 



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