A Book on Birds 



with ''light and airy tread/' until you are 

 very near; and then keep quiet long enough 

 to hear his performance to the end. 



You will have no trouble in discovering 

 him — for he is a big bird (larger than the 

 Robin), his back and tail being of reddish, 

 rusty brown, the tail-feathers very long. 



Moreover, in this quest for the Thrasher 

 you will by this time of the year be hkely 

 to meet many delightful diversions on 

 every side. 



At almost the same point where I used to 

 hear the Thrashers a Flicker had his home 

 in a hole about eight feet from the ground 

 in an old wreck of a tree. 



As often as I came there with friends 

 and knocked just below with a stick or a 

 stone he would come out very promptly 

 to find who it might be. 



Whereupon, if these friends had not met 

 him before, they were always taken aback 

 with surprise at his appearance; for a full- 

 fledged Fhcker is a ''sight to see,'' being 

 "dressed to kill" in a lot of gaudy and 

 superfluous finery, stuck on haphazard, 



[78] 



