38 THE O&O) SEM-_ANNUAE. 
this brush. Internally it is made up of grass, leaves, fibrous bark 
and sometimes a few horse-hairs. The grass usually if not always 
sticks through the outer covering—a feature, together with the 
external covering of sticks, that will always determine the species 
to which it belongs. Nests are rarely above ro feet up, com- 
monly 5, not seldom 3. 4 and 5 eggs in the set, never 6, rarely 
3. The color is much darker than Robin’s or Wood Thrush’s 
eggs. The darkest is beryl green, the lightest torquois blue, with 
a strong wash of beryl green. Eggs vary from rounded ovate to 
elongate ovate in‘form. 
First nest, May 16; last, July 10; common June 6. Chipmunks 
and small boys are their enemies. 
Flarporhynchus rufus, Brown Thrasher. 
First, April 21, 1; next, April 22; common April:25 Found 
everywhere among trees and brush; less common in deep woods. 
It nests anywhere, either on the ground—rare position—or in 
bushes or trees. The Osage Orange hedge rows are decidedly the 
preference here ; the proportion of nests in hedges to nests else- 
where is as 4:1. I have never found a nest above 8 ft. up—4 ft. 
is the normal height. 
The nest is large and sprawling with its profusion of sticks, 
outwardly. Inside the sticks is a layer of leaves and grass, against 
which the lining of rootlets is laid. The rootlets are never absent 
nor does any other material enter into the composition of the 
lining. The nest is built on or into its support, never *‘saddled.” 
The 4 (common) or 5 (less common) eggs vary in size and 
shape as well as in color and markings. Ovate is the common _ 
form, but both short and elongated ovate are not rare. The 
ground color varies from a pearl gray or almost white to a beau- 
tiful pearl blue. The latter color is not common. The spots vary 
from burnt umber and walnut brown to drab. Some specimens 
are heavily blotched and spotted over the entire surface, the 
blotches becoming larger at the greatest girth of the egg; while 
the others are scarcely blotched, though well spotted with all 
these colors. The one has the appearance of a decidedly brown 
ege while the other is very light. The bluish shaded specimens 
fade after being blown. 
White-rumped Shrike, field mice and small boys bother this 
bird when it builds in the hedge; the chipmunk and Jay in the 
woods. First nest, May 5 ; last, June 28; height of season, May £8. 
