THE BROWN THRASHER 



By T. GILBERT PEARSON 



THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUDUBON SOCIETIES 

 Educational Leaflet No. 68 



Among the twelve hundred and more species and varieties of wild 

 birds found in North America, a certain number are so well known that 

 few persons have not made their acquaintance either by actual introduc- 

 tion or by hearsay. The Robin, the Crow, the Jay, and the Eagle, for 

 example, are household words, often familiar to children long before the 

 little folk are large enough to go afield and observe the birds for them- 

 selves. The writers of verse have done much to make some of our 

 feathered friends known to us. In fact, poets have ^-^ jj; r( j s 

 depicted the charms of some birds in such living, and 



melodious verse that it is doubtful whether the fame the Poets 

 of these birds would ever fade from the memory of mankind, even 

 should the species thus glorified pass for all time from our view. 



Many of us, when children, read certain pleasant lines upon the 

 Brown Thrasher. The schoolbook called it "Brown Thrush," and per- 

 haps the name does quite as well. The poem to which I refer is truly a 

 beautiful one, and should be memorized by every child who does not 

 already know it, especially as it speaks the creed of the Audubon Society* 



There's a merry Brown Thrush sitting up in the tree; 

 He's singing to me! he's singing to me! 

 And what does he say, little girl, little boy, 

 "Oh, the world's running over with joy ! 



Don't you hear? don't you see? 



Hush ! look in my tree ! 



For I am as happy as happy can be." 



And the Brown Thrush keeps singing, "A nest do you see? 

 And five eggs hid by me in the juniper-tree? 

 Don't meddle, don't touch, little girl, little boy, 

 Or the world will lose some of its joy. 



Now I'm glad! now I'm free! 



And I always shall be, 



If you never bring sorrow to me." 



The Brown Thrasher well deserves the fame which it has achieved 

 as a vocalist, and fortunate is the man whose garden a pair of these birds 

 choose for their abode. Its song is the most varied contribution to the 

 bird-chorus heard at daybreak in the Northern States ; it is the Mocking- 

 bird of the North so much, indeed, does its song suggest the musical 

 performances of that masterly vocalist that early American ornitholo- 

 gists often called it the "Ferruginous Mockingbird." 



The Thrasher, while singing, usually occupies the topmost bough 

 of some bush or tree, and, although it sings mostly in the morning, occa- 

 sionally it may be heard at any hour of the day. Its voice is loud, clear, 



