The Brown Thrasher 271 



Some years ago a pair of these birds constructed their home in a 

 thorn-bush growing on the lawn of a residence where the writer chanced 

 to be visiting. The members of the household became much interested 

 in watching the fortunes of this bird-family, and es- 

 pecially were we impressed with the frequency with 

 which the parents fed their young. At this work 

 they were busy all day long. The birds seemed to gather food for the 

 little ones entirely from the lawn of the adjacent residence and from the 

 two gardens in the rear, rarely going off this territory. 



In approaching the nest they would advance flying low over the 

 grass until within about ten feet of the thorn-bush. Alighting on the 

 ground, they would look around for a moment, to see if any danger was 

 near, and then hop rapidly along to the lower branches, which came 

 down to the ground; then from limb to limb they would jump, ascending 

 a sort of irregular stairway to the nest, when we could hear the eager 

 clamor of the four little ones as they received their nourishment. We 

 soon noticed that one bird always went up the right-hand side of the bush, 

 and the other invariably hopped up through the limbs on the left side. 



I became curious to know just how often they brought food, and one 

 morning, with notebook in hand, sat for an hour on the veranda watch- 

 ing the movements of our little brown neighbors. Through my field- 

 glass I could see that they brought one, and at times apparently two or 

 three, insects or their larvae in each trip. Every time a bird came to 

 the nest I made a mark with my pencil. In the middle of the day I 

 made the same observations for an hour, and repeated the records in 

 the evening. 



The bird which went up the right-hand side of the bush made a trip 

 on an average of every two and a half minutes, and the bird which went 

 up the left-hand side made a trip every ten minutes. The young were 

 kept at home in the nest about two weeks. If the 

 birds took only one insect a trip, it would mean that 

 during this interval these Brown Thrashers fed to 

 their young 5,180 soft-bodied worms and insects. This, of course, does 

 not take into consideration what the old birds ate during this time ; nor 

 what they consumed during the period of incubation ; nor all those 

 delectable morsels which the male fed to the female during the blissful 

 days of courtship. If we include all these, and also what the family of 

 six ate after the young had left the nest and flown off into the bushes, 

 it is most conservative to estimate that this pair of Brown Thrashers 

 and their young were responsible, that summer, for the destruction of 

 the lives of over fifty thousand insects, most of which were injurious to 

 the vegetation of the region. 



Some birds are of so great value to men that, even if there were 

 no laws on the statute-books to protect them, every man, woman, an<! 

 child of the entire coimtrv should use their utmost influence to see that 

 these birds are not killed by human enemies, and that, so far as possible. 

 they receive strict protection against cats and other animals. Few birds 



