22 A^ESTS AND EGGS OF BIRDS. 



of tangled silk, fragments of lichen, . . held in situ by 

 strands of silk. Upon this basis was built a superstructure 

 of fine rootlets, intermingled with patches of wool." 



After the completion of the nest a short time elapses before 

 any eggs are laid, — this happening about the third week of 

 May in the Northern states generally, — and then only one is 

 deposited each day, for four or five days. The eggs are very 

 dark emerald green, highly polished, and about .91 of an inch 

 long, by .70 broad. There is small chance of confounding this 

 with any other American bird's c-g-g., certainly after it has been 

 seen once. Dr. C. C. Abbott informs me that, at Trenton, N. J., 

 he discovered a nest of purely white cat-birds' eggs, and leav- 

 ing it, found that all hatched at the proper time into perfect 

 young. Similar instances are known in the case of several 

 other species laying dark eggs, sometimes only one or two clear 

 white examples accompanying others of the normal color in 

 the same clutch. 



Incubation is protracted twelve or thirteen da3'S. Meanwhile 

 the male remains near by, solicitous for his mate's welfare, only 

 leaving her when hunger compels him to hunt. His enemies 

 are chiefly serpents which have a fondness for his eggs and 

 young. Should one of these glide into the bush, the birds in- 

 stantly attack it with the greatest fury, flying into its very 

 jaws. 



10. THE BROWN THRASHER. 



HARPORllYNCHUS RUFUS Cabanis. 



Brown, Red and Ferruginous Thrush; Red Mavis ; Corn Planter (New Jersey); 

 French Mocking-bird (Louisiana). 



The brown thrasher inhabits the eastern United States^ 

 extending north to the Red River ; west through Nebraska, 

 Dakota and Colorado ; and south to the Rio Grande, beyond 

 which the type is replaced by other races. It winters in the 

 southern United States and breeds throughout its range. 



The nest of this bird has a peculiar charm for me, for it was 

 the first one that I distinctly remember to have found, and it 

 was priceless to me. That first nest was sunk in the grass of 



