THRASHERS 583 



reports in J. M. O. S. for June, 1906, p. 39, the date of arrival 

 at Skowhegan as April 8, which is indeed much earlier than 

 the average dates given for elsewhere in the State. 



They are birds of thickets, hedgerows, garden shrubbery to 

 a less degree, orchards and woodlands of the open bushy type. 

 A majority of the individuals I have observed in Maine were 

 singing in the tops of trees by the roadside, but in Illinois 

 the species usually sang from the depths of the osage orange 

 hedgerows and thickets. They are great songsters, keeping 

 up a flood of melody much like that of the Mocking Bird and 

 lacking the harsh tinges of the Catbird's song. The song 

 continues for some minutes, and in addition to the typical song 

 of the species snatches and notes of the song of other birds 

 are sometimes interspersed which I can vouch for myself though 

 others have denied that this species is a "mocker." 



In feeding and habits in general when not singing, the 

 species is rather terrestrial in habits, hopping along the ground 

 and scratching among the dead leaves, exploring through piles 

 of dead brush which are heaped up, or skulking through the 

 bushy thickets. As they run along the ground with their 

 prominent tail in the air, flirting it about as it is partly spread 

 out, they present a very characteristic appearance. They both 

 run and hop, perhaps hopping more frequently but running 

 when desiring to make the greatest possible haste, wings partly 

 spread out and used to help to greater speed. Their call is a 

 "chuck," uttered when angry or alarmed, and I have also 

 heard the bird when frightened from the nest utter a distinct 

 hiss. 



The nests are rather large and bulky, and are placed in 

 brush heaps, thickets of various shrubbery, and similar loca- 

 tions, very rarely indeed in trees. These remarks refer to my 

 knowledge of the species as gained in Illinois and Kansas, as I 

 have never succeeded in finding their nests in Maine, and all my 

 further remarks on the species apply to the species as observed 

 by me in the west, though probably in general the habits of 



