THE BROWN THRASHER. 257 



BROWN THRASHER. 



A. O. U. Xo. 705. Toxostoma rufum | Linn. ). 



Description. — Adult : Upper parts, including tail, warm cinnamon-brown, or 

 tawny-cinnamon ; paler, brownish gray, on forehead ; sides of head gray, obscurely 

 dotted or mottled with brown ; wings dusky on concealed webs only ; coverts tipped 

 with dusky and white; outer tail-feathers sometimes faintly tipped with whitish, 

 often much worn and frayed ; under parts white or brownish white, silky, heavily 

 spotted on sides of throat, breast and sides, with dark brown. The spots are 

 brown-centered and dusky-edged, or solid dusky, tear-shaped, or wedge-shaped, 

 and sharply denned on the silky background. ' Bill dark brown above ; lower 

 mandible yellow at base, but dusky at end; culmen curved near tip; feet brown. 

 Length 10.50-12.00 (266.7-304.8); average of four Columbus specimens: wing 

 4.07 (103.4) ; tail 4.90 (124.5) ; bill .98 (24.9). 



Recognition Marks. — Robin size ; cinnamon-brown above ; whitish and heav- 

 ily spotted below ; long tail and rather long bill. 



Nest, of sticks, twigs, bark-strips and trash, lined with rootlets, horse-hair, or 

 feathers, placed at medium heights in hedge-rows, orchard trees, or thorn thickets. 

 Eggs, 4-5, sometimes 6, bluish or greenish white, sometimes buffv, thickly sprinkled 

 all over with cinnamon, but usually most thickly near larger end. Average size, 

 1. 07 x. 80 (27.2x20.3). 



General Range. — Eastern United States west to the Rocky Mountains ; north 

 to southern Maine, Ontario and Manitoba. Breeds from the Gulf States north- 

 ward. Accidental in Europe. 



Range in Ohio. — Regular but not abundant summer resident throughout the 

 state. 



THE last of this splendid trio of mocking singers is even more secretive 

 than the others in its ordinary habits, and bolder yet in song. Early in spring 

 the Thrashers steal northward up the river valleys, skulking along fence-rows 

 or hiding in brush-heaps and tangles, and rarely discovering themselves to 

 human eyes until the breeding ground is reached. Here, too, if the weather is 

 nnpropitious. they will mope and lurk silently; but as si urn as the south wind 

 repeats the promise of spring the Thrasher mounts a tree-top and clears his 

 throat for action. 



Choosing usually a spot a little way removed from the road, the singer 

 sends his voice careering over field and meadow, lane and wood-lot. till all may 

 hear him for a hundred rods around. What a magnificent aria he sings! 

 Precise, no doubt, and conscious, but it is full-voiced and powerful. Now and 

 then he lapses into mimicry, but for the most part his notes are his own — 

 piquant, incisive, peremptory, stirring. There is in them the gladness of the 



