The Brown Thrasher 41 



busy to be bothered by visitors. Most birds 

 are content to make one nest a year but not 

 these, who, in their excess of wren energy, keep 

 on building nest after nest in the vicinity of the 

 one preferred for their chocolate brown eggs. 

 Bending down the tips of the rushes they some- 

 how manage to weave them, with the weeds and 

 grasses they bring, into a bulky ball suspended 

 between the rushes and firmly attached to 

 them. In one side of this green grassy globe 

 they leave an entrance through which to carry 

 the finer grasses for the lining and the down from 

 last season's bursted cat-tails. When a nest 

 is finished, its entrance is often cleverly con- 

 cealed. If there are several feet of water below 

 the high and dry cradle, so much the better, 

 think the wrens — fewer enemies can get at 

 them ; but they do soraetimes build in meadows 

 that are merely damp. In such meadows the 

 short-billed marsh wren, a slightly smallet 

 sprite, prefers to live. 



THE BROWN THRASHER 



Called also: Brown Thrush; Long Thrush; 

 Ground Thrush; Red Thrush; French Mock- 

 ing-bird; Mavis. 



People who are not very well acquainted 

 with the birds about them usually mistake the 



