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AMERICAN ORNITHOL OGY 



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Perchance a few of our readers 

 have not yet made the acquaintance 

 of this general favorite; a word to 

 such. Led by unusual sounds you 

 approach a certain tree carefully un- 

 til you can see the source of them. 

 On the top of the tree, or at the end 

 of a branch, you see a brown bird, 

 say perhaps, ten or twelve inches 

 in length, the greater part of this 

 being tail. He stands with head up 

 and tail drooped straight down, and 

 from his throat comes the most de- 

 lightful warbling, whistling and tril- 

 ling that it has been your pleasure 

 to hear. You may safely put this 

 down in your note book as the 

 BROWN THRASHER. g^^^^ Thrasher. 



One of the first nests that 1 found this season was that of this bird, it 

 was conveniently located on the south side of a thorn bush, and near the 

 outside. As the Brown Thrasher is not a timid bird and will almost allow 

 you to remove her from the nest with the hand, I anticipated no difficulty 

 in obtaining some good photographs of her. Although 1 got the photos I 

 had more difificulty than with any other that 1 have attempted. 



About nine o'clock on a bright morning 1 called on her armed with all 

 the utensils necessary for picture taking. After tying back a few of the 

 branches to obtain a good view of the nest, 1 focussed the camera and re- 

 tired to watch developments. After the first numerous angry expostula- 

 tions against being driven from her home, she calmy perched on a branch 

 about six or eight feet from her nest and waited to see what my next move 

 would be. After waiting about four hours, watching her performing her 

 toilet and apparently giving no thought to her home, I gave it up for that 

 day. 



After going through the same operation for several days, she concluded 

 that since there was an easy mode of exit from the nest from the rear, that 

 she would settle down to business and pay no attention to me, as long as 

 1 remained a safe distance away. Unfortunately the next day after this 

 ■decision, some young hopeful chanced to discover the nest and appropriated 

 the contents to adorn his cigar box collection of eggs; thus my expected 

 series of pictures of this bird were broken soon after the start. 



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