CHAPTER EIGHT 



THE BROWN THRASHER AND ITS RELATIVES 



THE birds of this family attract attention by the loud- 

 ness and wonderful variety and richness of their music. 

 In this and many other ways they resemble thrushes. 

 They have shorter wings and longer tails than thrushes, 

 and their bills are longer and more curved. The family 

 is confined to America, and most of the species live in 

 warm regions. 



THE BROWN THRASHER 



The brown thrasher is commonly called the brown 

 thrush, but it is more nearly related to the wrens than to 

 the true thrushes. It is colored somewhat like the house 

 wren, but is much longer, being about 1 1 inches in length. 

 The tail alone is 5 inches long, which is more than the 

 length of the house wren from tip of beak to end of tail. 

 The color of the thrasher is not olive-brown like that of 

 the various true thrushes, but cinnamon-red. Under- 

 neath it is buffy white, with numerous dark brown streaks. 



The song of the thrasher. The song of the brown 

 thrasher may be heard at a distance of a quarter of a 

 mile. It consists of a medley, whose parts may seem 

 to come from different birds. After a rapid succession of 

 notes comes a short pause, then another series of a 

 different pitch. When planting corn, boys sometimes 

 imagine that the brown thrasher says' to them, Dig-a-hole, 

 dig-a-hole, put-him-in, put-him-in, stamp-him-down, stamp- 

 him-down. Like a soloist who entertains large audiences, 

 the brown thrasher, when singing, occupies a conspicuous 

 place, often high in a tree. At other times he is on the 

 ground or in the shrubbery, thickets, or hedgerows. 



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