BROWN THRASHER 357 



orange are well patronized — almost exclusively so * * * fur- 

 ther west — and the honey-locust tree is not forgotten. Next after 

 these come wild plum thickets, grapevine tangles, brush heaps, fence 

 corners, and last of all, the ground." He shows a photograph of a 

 nest in a corner of a Virginia rail fence. 



H. O. Todd, Jr., tells me that out of 109 nests found in Tennessee, 

 only one was on the ground. 



It is rather unusual for a thrasher to build its nest close to a house, 

 but several such cases have been reported; E. S. Cameron (1908) 

 reports a nest built close to a window in his house on his ranch in 

 Montana; and E. D. Nauman (1930a) writes: "Wliile myself and 

 family were living on a farm near Thornburg, Iowa, some years 

 ago, we had a thriving rose bush standing directly in front of the 

 kitchen window and close up; so close in fact that some of the 

 foliage and roses touched the glass. One season the Brown Thrash- 

 ers {Toxostoma rufum) made their home in the rose bush. Their 

 nest was twenty inches from the window glass." The birds were 

 not in the least disturbed by activities within the house. 



The only report I can find of any considerable number of brown 

 thrasher nests on the ground in the Middle West comes from Ed- 

 monde S. Currier (1904) in Minnesota. He says: "Several nests 

 seen, and all of them were sunken in the ground after the manner 

 of a Towhee's. In Iowa I have seen the nest thus placed, but it 

 is very unusual, and it is strange that the Leech Lake bird should 

 ])refer such a situation, though there must be a reason." 



On the contrary, ground nests are common in New England. One 

 lialf of the nests in southeastern Massachusetts, as recorded in my 

 field notes, were on the ground under bushes, trees, or thickets. The 

 others were in bushes, small trees, or brush heaps; the highest nest 

 I find recorded was only 4 feet from the ground in an arborvitae. 

 Frederic H. Kennard's notes for the vicinity of Boston record 23 

 nests, 10 of which were on the ground. All authorities seem to agree 

 that, in this region, ground nests are of common occurrence, es- 

 pecially on the higher lands, where the ground is warm and dry 

 and where the thrasher evidently prefers to nest. 



Eggs of the brown thrasher have been found in the nests of other 

 birds. There is a set of eggs in the American Museum of Natural 

 History, in New York, taken by H. B. Bailey on June 5, 1886, 

 near South Orange, N. J. It was taken from a wood thrush's nest, 

 which contained four eggs of the thrush, incubated about 7 days, and 

 two fresh eggs of the thrasher. Thrasher eggs have also been found 

 in nests with those of the mockingbird, the robin, and the cardinal. 

 Dr. W. C. Herman (1923) tells of a remarkable dual nest, in which 

 "the foundation was typical of that of the thrasher, while the center 



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