306 BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



brown ; upper parts reddish-brown ; greater wing-coverts edged with, and middle 

 lower parts, white ; breast, sides and crissum strongly tinged with reddish-brown ; 

 breast, sides and flanks conspicuously spotted with dark brown. 



Habitat. Eastern United States, west to Rocky mountains, north to southern 

 Maine, Ontario and Manitoba, south to the Gulf States, including eastern Texas. 

 Accidental in Europe. 



Common summer resident from about April 20 to late in September. 

 The Brown Thrush, as this bird is usually called, is found in thickets 

 and shrubbery ; he frequently, especially in the morning- and evening-, 

 repairs to the tops of trees, where, for hours at a time, he sings his varied 

 and beautiful song. Like our common domestic fowls, he frequently 

 may be seen scratching among the dead leaves or dusting himself by 

 the roadside. He sometimes visits fields, where corn is being planted, 

 to pick up the scattered grains of maize, and some farmers assert that 

 he often "pulls up corn " when it first appears above the ground. This 

 species breeds usually in low bushes, in briery thickets, sometimes on 

 the tops of old stumps covered with thick vines ; very rarely, with us, 

 do they build on the ground. The nest is a loose and bulky structure 

 composed of small twigs, strips of bark, leaves, rootlets, etc. The eggs, 

 four or five in number, are a light greenish or buffy color, thickly 

 speckled with reddish brown. They are a little more than an inch long, 

 and about three-quarters wide. 



Although these birds are generally shy and retiring, they will, if their 

 eggs or young are disturbed, display great bravery in defending them. 

 They will fly violently into a person's face and strike with both bill and 

 claws. When their home is invaded by a black snake, they assail such 

 intruder in a most vigorous manner. I once saw a dog, which had 

 upset a nest containing young thrushes, forced to make a speedy retreat 

 when attacked by the old birds, who flew at his head and struck him in 

 the eyes. The Brown Thrush feeds chiefly on insects, berries and small 

 seeds. The following- interesting- remarks concerning this species are 

 taken from Audubon's Birds of America, Vol. Ill : " My friend Bach- 

 man who has raised many of these bilds, has favored me with the fol- 

 lowing particulars respecting them : * Though good-humored towards 

 the person who feeds them, they are always savage towards all other 

 kinds of birds. I placed three sparrows in the cage of a Thrush one 

 evening, and found them killed, as well as nearly stripped of their feath- 

 ers, the next morning. So perfectly gentle did this bird become, that 

 when I opened its cage, it would follow me about the yard and garden. 

 The instant it saw me take a spade or a hoe, it would follow at my heels, 

 and, as I turned up the earth, would pick up every insect or worm thus 

 exposed to its view. I kept it for three years, and its affection for me 

 at last cost it its life. It usually slept on the back of a chair in my 

 study, and one night the door being accidentally left open, it was killed 

 by a cat. I once knew of a few of these birds to remain the whole of a 

 mild winter in the State of New York in a wild state."' 



