192 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 81. 



Brown Thrasher at Grinnell, Iowa, in the 

 Years 1870 to 1890. 



It is entirely possible that the conditions of which I speak 

 have materially changed, and that bird students at Grinnell 

 will need to say that these interesting birds have shown a 

 capacity for adapting themselves to changing conditions. This 

 would be interesting indeed. 



Grinnell lies in a typical rolling prairie region, with natural 

 woods bordering the streams. These woods were of decidu- 

 ous trees wholly, with thickets of hazel brush on the fringes, 

 wild crabapple and wild plum thickets usually near the fringe 

 but sometimes well within the woods, and with hawthorn and 

 wild gooseberry characteristic of the broader wooded bot- 

 tomlands where box elder trees predominated. As the coun- 

 try became settled many osage orange hedges and willow 

 wind-breaks sprang up. My serious bird studies did not 

 begin until the era of hedges and wind-breaks was ushered 

 in, and until the hazel brush patches appeared on man_\ 

 previously exclusively prairie hillsides, these patches affording 

 an invironment in which such trees as wild crabapple, haw- 

 thorn, wild black cherry, choke cherry, quaking aspen, and 

 finally over-cup oaks appeared. 



The Brown Thrasher is associated with my earliest recol- 

 lections as one of the most familiar birds. I find in the notes of 

 an older brother who began making a collection of. eggs about 

 1872 the statement that the Brown Thrasher (Thrush he has 

 it) nested in the wild crabapple, hawthorn, and wild goose- 

 berry, less commonly in the hazel bushes. No mention is 

 made of the hedges and wind-breaks which were small then. 

 These nests appear to have been placed from two to ten feet 

 from the ground, if old data records are accurate. 



Tn my experience the Brown Thrashers were inseperably 

 connected with Osage orange hedges, and to a lesser degree 

 with the willow wind-breaks. Some nests were still built 

 in the wild crabapple and hawthorn thickets, occasionally in 

 hazel bushes, and one remarkable situation was on the ground 

 in the midst of an old brush pile. 



