Brown Thrasher 483 



Brown Thrasher. Toxostoma rufum. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 705— Colorado Records— Allen 72, pp. 147, 

 174 ; Henshaw 75, p. 154 ; Allen & Brewster 83, p. 153 ; 

 Drew 85, p. 15 ; Beckham 85, p. 140 ; Cooke 97, pp. 19, 120 ; 

 Henderson 03, p. 108 ; 09, p. 240 ; JIarkham 07, p. 158 ; Gihuan 

 07, p. 195. 



Description. — IMale — Above rufous, a little browner on the head ; 

 wing-coverts tipped with white, forming a double wing-band ; under- 

 parts white, with a slight wash of pale buffy on the breast and flanks, 

 these parts conspicuously marked with oval spots of brown ; iris bright 

 yellow, bill dusky, paler on the base of the lower mandible ; legs 

 hght brown. Length 10-25 ; wing 4-10 ; tail 4-80 ; culmen -90 ; 

 tarsus 1 -30. 



The sexes are alike, but the females average slightly smaller ; the 

 young bird is essentially like the adult, but has indistinct dusky 

 spots on the back and the spots on the under-parts black, but less 

 clearly defined. 



Distribution. — Breeding in eastern North America from Maine 

 and Saskatchewan to eastern Texas and north Florida, and west to 

 the base of the Rocky Mountains ; wintering in the south-eastern 

 states from North Carolina to south Texas. 



In Colorado the Brown Thrasher is a fairly common summer resident 

 in the eastern plains and foothills, but hardly enters the mountains 

 or reaches a higher elevation than 7,000 feet. It arrives from the south 

 about the second week in May, and nests in June. It has once been 

 recorded from the western side of the range by Gihnan, who states 

 that he was told by Mr. Peterson that a pair nested in a gooseberry 

 bush near his house at Fort Lewis, in La Plata co., in 1904. It does 

 not appear to have been recorded from New ]\Iexico, Arizona or LTtah, 

 though foimd in Wyoming and Montana. The following are migration 

 records : Fort Lyon, May 4th-10th (Cooke), Colorado Springs, May 

 11th (Aiken coll.), Denver, May 12th (Henshaw), Boulder co.. May 

 12th (Gale), Loveland, May 10th (Cooke). 



Habits. — ^This bird, delighting chiefly in thick under- 

 growth and tangled thickets, rather shuns the eye of 

 man ; yet in the spring the male mounts to a conspicuous 

 perch and pours forth a loud and rather brilliant song. 

 It gets its name of " Thrasher " from its habits of 

 beating or thrashing the insects it catches until dead 

 and deprived of wings and legs. 



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