THE BROWN THRASHER 



By T. GILBERT PEARSON 



Wbt /Rational SLs0ociation of &uoubon &otktie& 



EDUCATIONAL LEAFLET No. 68 



Among the twelve hundred and more species and varieties of wild birds 



found in North America, there are a certain number so well known that few 



indeed are the people who have not made their acquaintance 



either by actual introduction or by hearsay. The Robin, the 



Crow, the Jay, and the Eagle, for example, are household 



words often quite familiar to children long before the little folk are large enough 



to go afield and observe the birds for themselves. The writers of verse have 



done much to make some of our feathered friends known to us. In fact, poets 



have depicted the charms of some birds in such living, rythmical verse that it 



is doubtful whether the fame of these birds would ever fade from the memory 



of mankind, even should the species thus glorified pass for all time from our 



view. 



Many of us, as children, read certain lines regarding the Brown Thrasher. 

 The schoolbook called it "Brown Thrush," and perhaps the name does quite 

 as well. The poem to which I refer is truly a beautiful one, and should be 

 memorized by every child who does not already know it. In it is given much 

 of the creed of the Audubon Society. 



There's a merry Brown Thrush sitting up in the tree; 

 He's singing to me ! he's singing to me ! 

 And what does he say, little girl, little boy, 

 "Oh, the world's running over with joy! 



Don't you hear? don't you see? 



Hush ! look in my tree ! 



For I am as happy as happy can be." 

 And the Brown Thrush keeps singing, "A nest do you see? 

 And, five eggs hid by me in the juniper tree? 

 Don't meddle, don't touch, little girl, little boy, 

 Or the world will lose some of its joy. 



Now I'm glad! now I'm free! 



And I always shall be, 



If you never bring sorrow to me." 



The Brown Thrasher well deserves the fame which it has achieved as a 

 vocalist, and fortunate is the man in whose garden a pair of these birds have 

 chosen to take up their abode. Its song is the most varied note of the bird 

 chorus heard at daybreak in the northern states. It is the Mockingbird of the 

 North. In fact, so much does its song suggest the musical performances of 

 that masterful vocalist that early American ornithologists often called it the 

 "Ferruginous Mockingbird." 



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