370 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



to my mind most vividly the theme and the tempo of the thrasher's 

 song, and I fancy that I can see him perched on the top of a tall birch 

 tree beside the plowed lot. Many other wordings have been attributed 

 to this versatile bird, but there is not room to quote them all here. 

 One of the most elaborate versions is given by Mrs. H. P. Cook (1929) 

 as one end of a telephone conversation, like this: "Hello, hello, yes, 

 yes, yes. Who is this? Wlio is this? Well, well, well, I should say, 

 I should say. How's that ? How's that ? I don't know, I don't know. 

 What did you say? What did you say? Certainly, Certainly, Well, 

 well, well. Not that I know of. Not that I know of. Tomorrow? To- 

 morrow ? I guess so, I gaiess so. All right, All right, Goodbye, Good- 

 bye." F. Schuyler Mathews (1921) suggests the following advice 

 to the farmer : "Shuck it, shuck it ; sow it, sow it ; Plough it, plough it ; 

 hoe it, hoe it." All these interpretations seem to suggest the song 

 that Forbush (1929) describes as "a succession of phrases of two to 

 four syllables, loud, clear, rich, musical and of great variety, each 

 one delivered as a positive statement complete in itself, and unre- 

 lated to the rest, with a brief pause after it." Mrs. Nice (1931) made 

 the following careful observation: "An April 1, 1926 I noted the 

 number of times a Thrasher repeated each phrase and found the 

 scheme less regular than I had suspected ; it went thus : 2, 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 

 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 1,. 2, 2, 2, 3, 1, 3, 4, 2, 3, 1, 3, 4, 2, 3, 2, 



^« i^« Z/^ ^^ X. 



Tilford Moore, of St. Paul, Minn., tells me that, on April 30, 1941, 

 he saw a thrasher singing as it flew between two perches ; it did this 

 twice. 



Field marks. — A brown thrasher could hardly be mistaken for any 

 other bird within its range. It is a long, slim bird with a long tail, 

 bright reddish brown above, with two whitish wing bars on each wing, 

 whitish beneath, streaked with blackish, a long bill and glaring, yellow 

 eyes. 



Eneviies. — Nesting as it does on or near the ground, the eggs and 

 3'oung of the thrasher are particularly vulnerable to the attacks of 

 prowling predators, such as dogs, cats, foxes, raccoons, skunks, weasels, 

 probably squirrels, and snakes. Crows, blue jays, and perhaps grackles 

 may rob the nests, if they can find them. Hawks, especially the accip- 

 iters, may kill a few adults, though the thrashers are quite expert 

 in dashing into thick bushes and hiding. I have several records of 

 cowbirds' eggs in thrasher nests, but Dr. Friedmann (1929) calls the 

 thrasher "a decidedly uncommon victim of the Cowbird. This species 

 is the largest passerine bii-d affected by the parasite, and is the largest 

 bird definitely known to have hatched and reared a young Cowbird. 

 J. A. Allen saw a female Brown Thrasher feeding a nearly full grown 

 Cowbird in Western Iowa in 1868. * * * As far as I know, the 

 late Dr. Allen's observation has remained unique to this day." 



