Brown Thrasher 483 
Brown Thrasher. Toxostoma rujum. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 705—Colorado Records—Allen 72, pp. 147, 
174; Henshaw 75, p. 154; Allen & Brewster 83, p. 153; 
Drew 85, p. 15; Beckham 85, p. 140; Cooke 97, pp. 19, 120; 
Henderson 03, p. 108; 09, p. 240; Markham 07, p. 158; Gilman 
07, p. 195. 
Description.—Male—Above rufous, a little browner on the head ; 
wing-coverts tipped with white, forming a double wing-band ;_ under- 
parts white, with a slight wash of pale buffy on the breast and flanks, 
these parts conspicuously marked with oval spots of brown ; iris bright 
yellow, bill dusky, paler on the base of the lower mandible; legs 
light brown. Length 10-25; wing 4:10; tail 4-80; culmen -90; 
tarsus 1-30. 
The sexes are alike, but the females average slightly smaller ; the 
young bird is essentially like the adult, but has indistinct dusky 
spots on the back and the spots on the under-parts black, but less 
clearly defined. 
Distribution. Breeding in eastern North America from Maine 
and Saskatchewan to eastern Texas and north Florida, and west to 
the base of the Rocky Mountains; wintering in the south-eastern 
states from North Carolina to south Texas. 
In Colorado the Brown Thrasher is a fairly common summer resident 
in the eastern plains and foothills, but hardly enters the mountains 
or reaches a higher elevation than 7,000 feet. It arrives from the south 
about the second week in May, and nests in June. It has once been 
recorded from the western side of the range by Gilman, who states 
that he was told by Mr. Peterson that a pair nested in a gooseberry 
bush near his house at Fort Lewis, in La Plata co., in 1904. It does 
not appear to have been recorded from New Mexico, Arizona or Utah, 
though found in Wyoming and Montana. The following are migration 
records: Fort Lyon, May 4th-10th (Cooke), Colorado Springs, May 
llth (Aiken coll.), Denver, May 12th (Henshaw), Boulder co., May 
12th (Gale), Loveland, May 10th (Cooke). 
Habits.—This bird, delighting chiefly in thick under- 
growth and tangled thickets, rather shuns the eye of 
man ; yet in the spring the male mounts to a conspicuous 
perch and pours forth a loud and rather brilliant song. 
It gets its name of “Thrasher” from its habits of 
beating or thrashing the insects it catches until dead 
and deprived of wings and legs. 
HH 2 
