THE BROWN THRASHER. 23 



s\^■ampy woods, but this situation I soon found to be not the 

 only one affected by the thrasher. He is an inhabitant of the 

 out-of-the-way orchards and the edges of the woods, where 

 his "querulous smack" is heard among the first-comers in the 

 spring. In such a locality he builds his nest. It may be on 

 the ground or sunk into it, on a brush pile, on the end of a 

 fence-rail, in the dense centre of a hawthorn or a hedge (never 

 fail to look into every thorn bush), or twenty feet up in the 

 fork of a sapling. 



Early in March, in Florida and Louisiana, the birds having 

 paired begin to look about for some such place for a homestead. 

 In Pennsylvania this does not happen until early in May ; and 

 when the brow^n thrashers have reached New England, by the 

 middle of that month, they seem already to be paired off' and 

 immediately begin nesting. "After the selection of a suitable 

 site both birds set diligently to work until the nest is completed, 

 which is the result of four or five days' steady labor." If 

 placed above the ground, the nest is composed outwardly of 

 a layer of twigs, sometimes with many dry leaves underneath, 

 then leaves and strips of cedar and grape-vine bark, or broad 

 grasses and fibrous roots firmly woven into a broad and flattish 

 structure. It is not so loose as the cat-bird's, so bulky as the 

 blue jay's, or so ragged and disreputable-looking as the king- 

 bird's, nor has it hardly any mud in its composition. If on the 

 ground, or sunk into it — like that first proud discovery of mine, 

 or a ver}^ handsome one I found under a tiny evergreen bush 

 on a side-hill in Connecticut last year — the nest will be found 

 constructed almost entirely of interwoven broad grasses secure- 

 ly bound together, and with the edges overcast in the best style 

 of basket-finishing. Perhaps its firmness is due to the previous 

 condition of the materials, which, having been moistened with 

 water and plastered with mud, become so agglutinated as to re- 

 quire great effort to detach them from the fabric. Its thick- 

 ness is also great. This strength and trimness give it an in- 

 definable character not easily mistaken by the experienced eye. 

 Occupation closely follows the completion of the nest and 

 lasts through a week, three to five eggs being laid. Their color 

 is greenish, or dirty white, over which is thickly sprinkled a pep- 



