The Brown Thrasher, East and West. 189 



situated that have been found, but brush piles on prairie 

 land are rare. The next locations nearest the ground are 

 where nests are built in such bushes as gooseberry, lilac, and 

 syringa, when they are from two to three feet above the 

 ground. The highest nest, situation found was one in a 

 tame crabapple tree about ten feet up ; other trees frequently 

 used are spruce, willow, apple and plum trees in which a 

 majority of the nests are about five feet from the ground, 

 always a trifle too high for women of medium height to 

 look into without a box or chair to stand upon. 



It is the behavior of Brown Thrashers as described by 

 New England observers that suggests their greatest varia- 

 tions from their kindred in the Middle West. Description of 

 the actions of the species in the former place seem to em- 

 phasize its shy and skulking habits. Whether the Iowa 

 Brown Thrashers are shy or bold may be gathered from the 

 followmg account of them. 



In our household it is one of the best beloved of our birds, 

 even the manner of its arrival in the spring setting it apart 

 from the others, its return to us bringing a leap of the pulse, 

 and a pleasurable thrill surpassing that felt for our other 

 summer companions. Our first arrivals, the Prairie Horned 

 Larks, may be heard on the first mild evenings after the 

 middle of February, as they bid each other . " Goodnight,"' 

 and retire behind their respective clods of earth, but these 

 birds are out of sight in some neighboring field. Undemon- 

 strative Robins and Bluebirds next appear without signs 

 of joy or familiarity, to be followed soon by Blackbirds and 

 Meadowlarks, that sing their pleasure in muffled voices, as 

 if they had caught bad colds as they journeyed northward; 

 Sparrows, Shrikes and several other species, succeed them in 

 much the same manner, until the last days of April or the 

 first of May, when in the gray dawn of some morning the 

 wakeful one of the household steals down the stairs to arouse 

 the heavy sleeper exclaiming : " Do you hear that ? The 

 Thrashers have come!"" and later the neighbors say: " Youi" 

 Thrashers have come! T heard them singing: at break of 



