OF VIRGINIA 323 
are a sociable bird, and when nesting near one’s house 
soon become accustomed to the presence of the inhabitants 
at close range. I have have had a pair raise, within twenty 
feet of my door, a brood of four, and their second setting 
was raised in a new nest within three feet of the first. In 
Tidewater a few remain throughout the winter, if mild, 
GENUS TOXOSTOMA. 
[705]. Toxostoma rufum (Linneus). Brown Thrasher. 
[French Mocker. Wood Robin]. 
Ranex.—Eastern United States. Breeds mainly in 
Transition and Austral zones from southern Alberta, 
southern Manitoba, northern Michigan, southern Ontario, 
southern Quebec, and northern Maine south to eastern 
Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and northern Florida, 
and from base of the Rocky Mountains in Montana, 
Wyoming, and Colorado eastward; winters from south- 
eastern Missouri and Virginia (James River Peninsula), 
to south central Texas, southern Florida, and casually 
further north; accidental in Arizona and Europe. 
This species was not given as a regular winter resident 
in Virginia by the 1910 A. O. U. check list, although it 
has always been a regular winter resident during my 
sojourn in the State, covering a period of over twenty 
years. It is a common breeder, and remains through the 
winter, breeding with the earliest of birds. Known to 
the residents and negroes as ‘‘Wood Robin”; many are 
shot as game on account of their size. They are especially 
fend of the wild fox grape and muscadine during the 
