246 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



later when detained by an unusually large crop of wild grapes. 

 Late dates for the state are October 10, 1904, Kansas City; Oc- 

 tober 20, 1885, Fayette; October 13, 1903, and October 21, 

 1902, New Haven, Mo. 



*705. ToxosTOMA RUFUM (Linn.). Brown Thrasher. 



Turdus rujus. Orpheus rufus. Harporhynchus rufus. Brown Thrush. 



Geog. Dist. — Eastern North America, north to southern Maine, 

 southern Quebec, southern Ontario, Manitoba, Assiniboia and 

 southern Alberta; west to eastern Colorado and eastern Texas. 

 Breeds from the Gulf States northward. Winters in the South- 

 ern States. 



In Missouri a common summer resident in all well-settled 

 parts; most numerous in the Ozark border and prairie regions, 

 rare in the southeast where all ground-feeding landbirds are 

 rare, and rather scarce in the Ozarks except in localities which 

 have long been settled, where they are fairly common. A few 

 winter in the southeast (January 1896, Dunklin Co.) and some 

 impatient old males return to their breeding stands in southern 

 Missouri quite early (March 1, 1905, and March 10, 1902, Festus, 

 Jefferson Co.; March 9, 1902, New Haven, Franklin Co.). The 

 earliest at St. Louis is March 13, 1882, and March 14, 1880, 

 but from March 20 to 25 is the time when its song is usually 

 heard for the first time at St. Louis and in most parts of southern 

 and east-central Missouri. In the northern and western prairie 

 region Thrashers are seldom heard before April and, since the 

 weather of the first week of April is often cold and unfavorable, 

 usually not before the second week. In some years the northern 

 border has not been reached before the third week (April 20, 

 1902; April 22, 1890; April 22, 1900, Keokuk). The bulk of 

 the species reaches St. Louis nearly always between the tenth 

 and the fifteenth of April and Keokuk between the seventeenth 

 and twenty-ninth. Transients in small troops pass through mostly 

 in the second week of April, when the Thrasher is one of the most 

 conspicuous and common songsters in St. Louis. Though not 

 so confiding as the Catbird and Mocker, the Thrasher also comes 

 to nest in our parks and orchards, especially where protected 

 from his many enemies. Its splendid song continues through 

 April and most of May, after which it is only occasionally heard 

 until molt begins in the middle of July. We hear its song again 

 in fall, but only occasionally, as the species remains very quiet 



