528 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK 



Tweet, Tweet, 

 Tu-r-r-r, Tur-r-r-r, 

 Wee-ah; Wee-ah! 



and I knew that our prince of songsters was feeling 

 good and telling every other inhabitant of his joy 

 by his quaint song. 



It took but a few moments to locate him on the 

 topmost branch of a pin oak where his reddish- 

 colored body, speckled breast and long tail made 

 the brown thrasher a conspicuous object against a 

 patch of blue sky. "Cherer-link, chere-er link," 

 cried a robin in response, while a half-dozen bril- 

 liant little redstarts flew nervously from tree to 

 tree inspecting the branches, leaves and buds, keep- 

 ing in constant motion and saying their say as if 

 they were in a great hurry and feared interrup- 

 tion, 



"T'WEET WHEE WHEE WHEE WHIS ETT!" 



Taking out my pencil and note book I counted 

 the words and syllables by making a series of dots 

 and dashes as the brown thrasher birds sang; of 

 course the song often varied in the number of 

 words used, but the normal number is as here 

 recorded. 



In among the small dogwoods, briars and poison 

 ivy, a little yellowbird, with a sort of orange- 

 colored dots on its breast, flew, peering under the 

 leaves, often even descending to the ground and 

 turning over last year's dead leaves which lay there 

 among the rank grasses and wild flowers ; this was 



