Brown Thrasher. 103 



surrounded by spiny branches. Heaps of hedge and other 

 brush are very satisfactory sites for nests, and scattering 

 clumps of wild gooseberry bushes in woody pastures are 

 favored sites, as well as dwarf haw trees. The eggs are 

 generally four in number, occasionally five, and rarely 

 six, pale greenish, finely speckled with reddish brown. 

 Davie gives the average size as 1.08 by .80 of an inch, 

 with considerable variation. 



No other tenant of the hedgerow is more noisy than 

 the brown thrasher, and when startled from the bush it 

 emerges with a great rattle and flutter. It has a call note 

 which can be closely imitated by whistling the word 

 "George," the first half of the combination being pro- 

 longed. This note, as well as a sort of cracking sound 

 uttered quickly, is also used to express alarm. The crack- 

 ling note is giveti almost similarly by the slate-colored 

 junco, and also by the fox sparrow, which utters it more 

 loudly and forcibly. The brown thrasher enjoys hopping 

 and running among the dead leaves at the base ot the 

 hedge, and it thus causes considerable rattling and rustling 

 of the dried vegetation. Its long tail, carried usually in 

 a drooping manner, is frequently expanded in a graceful 

 way as the bird flits from one bush to another. When it 

 flies any distance, except in the early season while it is 

 frequenting the tops of the taller trees, its flight is low 

 and heavy, resulting from its comparatively short and 

 rounded wings; and its pendent tail adds to the effect. 



From the first of July to the time when they leave our 

 locality in the early days of October, the brown thrashers 

 skulk closely in the hedges, brush-heaps, and thickets, 

 indicating their presence when disturbed by the notes 

 already mentioned, and flirting out of the hedge with 

 considerable noise, either flitting on ahead a short distance, 

 or passing around and behind, to enter the hedge again. 

 At this season they slip quietly into orchards and fruit 

 gardens to feast upon the fresh ripe fruits. Near the close 

 of warm summer afternoons in dry seasons several indi- 

 viduals may be seen bathing and rolling in the dust of the 

 highway with evident pleasure, flitting to the hedge along 

 the roadside when they are disturbed by travelers. This 

 habit of dust bathing is not confined to this species, but 



