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utters in the brush while it curiously investigates the human intruder, is 

 well known to most country frequenters and by some queer twist of psych- 

 ology has aroused a prejudice against it. 



It is a frequenter of thickets and, like many other species frequenting 

 such habitats where close observation can be made of dangerous objects 

 with a minimum of danger to the concealed observer, its curiosity is well 

 developed. On some tall spray rising out of the tangle it sits in the bright 

 sun with its tail depressed and body held low to the perch, and pours out a 

 medley of song. Phrase follows phrase in rapid succession and snatches of 

 all the bird songs of the neighbourhood are intermixed with occasional 

 harsher, mechanical sounds which are given with as much gusto as the 

 more melodious ones. The Catbird is a most desirable neighbour. 



Economic Status. The Catbird lives largely upon fruit in season, of 

 which perhaps a third can be regarded as cultivated, but many insects are 

 also taken. The fruits are small, soft varieties and it is very seldom if 

 ever that perceptible damage is done. 



Genus — Toxostoma. Thrashers. 



705. Brown Thrasher, fh. — la gmve rousse. Toxostoma rufum. L, 11-42. 

 PlateXLVA. (Figure 62, p. 28). 



Distinctions. The Brown Thrasher with its red-brown back and sharply streaked 

 breast has the general outward appearance of a Thrush, but its large size, ruddiness of 

 the brown, and long tail are distinctive. 



Field Marks. The bright red-brown back, sharply striped breast, long tail, and 

 general carriage and habits. 



Nesting. In thickets or on the ground, in nests of.twigs, coarse rootlets, and leaves, 

 lined with finer rootlets. 



Distribution. Eastern United States and southern Canada, except Atlantic coast, 

 north including the sections of thickest settlements. 



The Brown Thrasher is probably the best common Canadian songster 

 from Ontario westward. 



Its song, very similar to that of the Song Thrush of Europe, is a 

 succession of phrases like that of the Catbird but without its occasional 

 discordance and more liquid and mellow in tone. The notes are uttered 

 close together and continue for several minutes, sometimes in great 

 variety. Thoreau has translated some of them as "Drop it — drop it — 

 cover it up, cover it up — pull it up, pull it up." The repetition of each 

 variation is one of the peculiarities of the song of the Brown Thrasher, 

 by which it can be distinguished from the Catbird. 



This is also a bird of the thickets inhabiting open tangles, clumps of 

 bushes in meadows, and the edges of woods and fence-rows. The Thrasher 

 is rather more retiring than the Catbird and is less easily induced to come 

 into the home grounds. 



Economic Status. A decidedly useful bird, over one-half of its food 

 being injurious insects, beetles, caterpillars, grasshoppers, etc. The 

 remainder is largely fruit, a small part of which is, probably, cultivated and 

 is mostly raspberries. On the whole it does little damage and much good. 



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