BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. ^565 



westward of Mount Auburn, had become too civilized for its liking. Migrat- 

 ing Thrashers occasionally appeared then, as they do still, in the Fresh Pond 

 Swamps, and also in our city gardens, but I have never known the species to 

 breed in Cambridge nor indeed much nearer that city than on the high ridge 

 which extends from Arlington to Waverley. Along this ridge, as well as 

 throughout the thinly settled country to the westward, the birds continue to 

 re-appear, season after season, in many different localities. Although nowhere 

 very numerous, they attract general attention, especially in late April and early 

 May when the males are pouring out their loud, musical songs. Their nests 

 are commonly built in barberry or other low, dense bushes, but sometimes on 

 the ground. In midsummer, broods of young Thrashers with their parents may 

 often be seen indulging in dust baths in retired country roads or flitting through 

 the shrubbery that half conceals the bordering stone walls. During late sum- 

 mer and early autumn they are given to frequenting swampy thickets, especially 

 those composed chiefly of high-blueberry bushes. Most of our Thrashers depart 

 for the south before the close of September, but a few birds usually remain 

 until about the 20th of October and stragglers sometimes linger into November. 



There is an instance on record ' of a Brown Thrasher spending the entire 

 winter in an old pasture grown up to cedars and barberry bushes on a hillside 

 which slopes steeply down from Arlington Heights towards the center of Arling- 

 ton. This bird was first noticed on December 15, 1894, by Mr. Arthur S. 

 Gilman who, three days later, showed it to Mr. Walter Faxon, by whom it 

 was kept under close observation through the remainder of the winter, which 

 was exceptionally cold with a good deal of snow. Although the bird could fly 

 perfectly well, at least for short distances, one of its wings drooped perceptibly. 

 Perhaps its failure to migrate at the usual season was due to some injury that it 

 had received during the previous autumn or summer. Probably it would have 

 perished had not Mr. Faxon fed it regularly once or twice each week, giving it 

 Indian meal mush, bread crumbs, oatmeal and occasionally meal worms, all of 

 which it ate greedily from a tin dish. It remained in the same spot through 

 January and February and was last seen on March 5. 



Just as this Memoir is going to press I learn from Mr. Faxon that he saw 

 another Brown Thrasher in Lexington on February 22, 23 and 24, 1905. It 

 was noted at intervals during the following month up to the 26th. On all the 

 February dates it appeared, in company with some Robins, near a house where 

 food is thrown out daily for the birds. As far as he could judge by its appear- 

 ance it was in sound and healthy condition. There can be little question that it 

 passed the entire winter (a severe one with deep snows) in Lexington. 



1 A. S. Gilman, Auk, XIII, 1896, 176-177. 



