BROWN THRASHER 353 



perched in the top of some wayside tree or on some tall bush on the 

 border of the woods, pouring out his delightful song, with his head 

 held high, his bill wide open, his long tail drooping, and his whole 

 frame vibrating with the ecstasy of his song. We may imagine that 

 he is telling the farmer in the adjacent plowed lot how to plant his 

 corn; at least, his words seem to say so; but, more likely, it is just 

 an outburst of joy, to announce that he has found his summer home, 

 a warning to any rival that he claims this territory, or an invitation 

 to an expected mate to come and join him in his homemaking. What 

 a thrill of springtime pleasure such a scene must give to the appre- 

 ciative mind ! I pity the sordid soul that can pass it by unheeded, 

 for he misses much of the beauty in the world about him. 



Territory. — Each pair of thrashers has a definite breeding territory, 

 which it defends during the nesting season. The male arrives some 

 days in advance of the female and begins at once to look the region 

 over with a view to selecting his territory ; at first he is furtive and 

 quiet but soon announces his choice in his loud outburst of song, an 

 invitation to liis mate. The actual nesting site, probably selected by 

 the female, may or may not be very near the singing tree. Aretas A. 

 Saunders writes to me : "In the spring of 1923 I noted during early 

 morning walks that a brown thrasher sang daily from a small tree 

 along a roadside in Fairfield, Conn. The bird sang from April 27 

 to May 13. On the 14th, not hearing the song at first, I soon discov- 

 ered the bird in a tangle of weeds and blackberry almost directly 

 beneath the singing tree. Another bird, evidently the female, was 

 with him and he was following her around on the ground, singing 

 constantly a song like the normal one in form but so faint I could not 

 have heard it had I not been very close to the birds. After that time 

 I no longer heard this bird in song and did not see it or its mate 

 again until May 22, when I discovered the nest with four eggs and a 

 bird incubating them. The nest was in almost the exact spot where 

 I had observed the courtship and almost directly beneath the singing 

 tree of late April and early May." 



Another experience of his was quite different. On a small hill near 

 his house was a dense thicket of sumacs, rambler roses, and other 

 shrubs, in which for a succession of years a pair of song sparrows and 

 later a pair of catbirds had nested. "The catbirds nested there until 

 1938. That spring the male catbird arrived and sang as usual, and a 

 week or so later his mate arrived. On May 18, when the catbirds 

 were just beginning to gather nesting material, a pair of brown 

 thrashers arrived rather suddenly ; they at once took over the thicket 

 and started nest-building. I saw no fighting between them and the 

 catbirds. The latter simply retired to a neighboring yard. 



"I had heard no thrasher song anywhere near my home, and I did 

 not hear it now. The birds had simply moved in from elsewhere after 



