IV 
THE BROWN THRASHER 
Tue brown thrasher — called also the brown 
thrush —is a bird considerably longer than a 
robin, with a noticeably long tail and a long, 
curved bill. His upper parts are reddish brown 
or cinnamon color, and his lower parts white or 
whitish, boldly streaked with black. You will 
find him in hedgerows, in scrub-lands, and about 
the edges of woods, where he keeps mostly on or 
near the ground. His general manner is that of 
a creature who wishes nothing else so much as to 
escape notice. ‘Only let me alone,” he seems 
to say. If he sees you coming, as he pretty cer- 
tainly will, he dodges into the nearest thicket or 
barberry-bush, and waits for you to pass. 
Farmers know him as the “ planting-bird.” 
In New England he makes his appearance with 
commendable punctuality between the twentieth 
of April and the first of May; and while the 
farmer is planting his garden, the thrasher en- 
courages him with song. One man, who was 
planting beans, imagined that the bird said, 
