1906.
May 8
(No 3)
  As I was strolling in Birch Field late this afternoon I
heard a loud rustling of leaves near at hand. It was made
by a Brown Thrasher who was engaged in getting his supper.
He was an unusually tame bird and I watched him
with great interest, at a distance of only 8 or 10 yards,
without appearing to distract his attention for a single moment
from his occupation. He was in a grassy opening over
which a large number of oak leaves had been drifted by
high winds from a neighboring cluster of trees. Swinging
his head from side to side and using his bill much as
a haymaker uses a pitch fork in spreading hay he was
tossing the leaves about with remarkable vigor & success.
Sometimes he moved them singly but usually at least
two or three were thrown aside at each stroke of
the closed bill. That it was closed and used merely
as a prod I could see distinctly. Twice, however,
I saw him open his bill and pick up a leaf before
attempting to throw it. On no occasion did he
impale the leaves. He simply put his bill under them
and gave them a toss into the air & to one side.
The reward for all this labor was most generous
at times for on several occasions he found so much
food beneath a leaf that it took him a minute
or more to dispose of it. Indeed he was constantly
picking up & gulping down things that I could not see.
During the entire time I spent watching him he
rambled about in every direction over a space four or
five yards square. His gait was invariably a slow, even, gliding
walk. Not once did he hop. When a Crow cawed loudly
in the distance he stood erect for a half minute watching &
listening. This was the only time he showed any alarm
or suspicion.
Brown Thrasher feeding