THE BROWN THRASHER. 257 
No. 112. 
BROWN THRASHER. 
A. O. U. No. 705. Toxostoma rufum (Linn.). 
Description.—Adult: Upper parts, including tail, warm cinnamon-brown, or 
tawny-cinnamon ; paler, brownish gray, on forehead ; sides of head gray, obscurely 
dotted or mottled with brown; wings dusky on concealed webs only; coverts tipped 
with dusky and white; outer tail-feathers sometimes faintly tipped with whitish, 
often much worn and frayed; under parts white or brownish white, silky, heavily 
spotted on sides of throat, breast and sides, with dark brown. ‘he spots are 
brown-centered and dusky-edged, or solid dusky, tear-shaped, or wedge-shaped, 
and sharply defined on the silky background. Bill dark brown above; lower 
mandible yellow at base, but dusky at end; culmen curved near tip; feet brown. 
Length 10.50-12.00 (266.7-304.8) ; average of four Columbus specimens: wing 
4.07 (103.4) ; tail 4.90 (124.5) ; bill .98 (24.9). 
Recognition Marks.—Robin size; cinnamon-brown above; whitish and heav- 
ily spotted below; long tail and rather long bill. 
Nest, of sticks, twigs, bark-strips and trash, lined with rootlets, horse-hair, or 
feathers, placed at medium heights in hedge-rows, orchard trees, or thorn thickets. 
Eggs, 4-5, sometimes 6, bluish or greenish white, sometimes buffy, thickly sprinkled 
all over with cinnamon, but usually most thickly near larger end. Average size, 
RO 7X OOM (27222203). 
General Range.—Eastern United States west to the Rocky Mountains; north 
to southern Maine, Ontario and Manitoba. Breeds from the Gulf States north- 
ward. Accidental in Europe. 
Range in Ohio.—Regular but not abundant summer resident throughout the 
‘state. 
THE last of this splendid trio of mocking singers is even more secretive 
than the others in its ordinary habits, and bolder yet in song. Early in spring 
the Thrashers steal northward up the river valleys, skulking along fence-rows 
or hiding in brush-heaps and tangles, and rarely discovering themselves to 
human eyes until the breeding ground is reached. Here, too, if the weather is 
unpropitious, they will mope and lurk silently ; but as soon as the south wind 
repeats the promise of spring the Thrasher mounts a tree-top and clears his 
throat for action. 
Choosing usually a spot a little way removed from the road, the singer 
sends his voice careering over field and meadow, lane and wood-lot, till all may 
hear him for a hundred rods around. What a magnificent aria he sings! 
Precise, no doubt, and conscious, but it is full-voiced and powerful. Now and 
then he lapses into mimicry, but for the most part his notes are his own— 
piquant, incisive, peremptory, stirring. There is in them the gladness of the 
