Song of the Brown Thrasher. A 

 Legend. 



BY ARTHUR H. HOWELL. 



> The Brown Thrasher is one of our common 



summer residents. Their song, which is novel 

 as well as pleasing, is frequently heard, the 

 singer usually occupying the topmost branch of 

 some small tree or hedge on the edge of a 

 field. They prefer dry, upland ground, and I 

 have met them most frequently along old de- 

 serted roads, where they delight to wallow In 

 the sand, after the manner of the domestic 

 fowl. 



They build their nests in small bushes or on 

 the ground, usually in a hedge, and the sharp, 

 metallic " chip " which they utter when it is 

 disturbed, while flying about the head of the 

 intruder, is positive identity of the species. 

 Once heard, it can never be niistalsen. 



I would not attempt to improve upon Mr. 

 Oliver Davie's description of their song, as 

 given in the January (1888), Oologist, Twill 

 simply give an old legend concerning it which 

 is current around my bii thplaee on Long Is- 

 land, though I have never seen the story in 

 print. 



There were three persons concerned ; a Mr. 

 Kaynor, a tavern-keeper; Terrill, an old toper; 

 and Zopher, his friend and companion in revel- 

 ry. As the story runs, the friends, one night, 

 partook freely of the contents of the cup, and 

 by ten o'clock the next forenoon, Mr. Terrill 

 had not sulHciently recovered from its eft'ects to 

 be very clear in his reasonina:. It was a warm 

 i June evening, and as he wandered aimlessly 

 I along an old road, he heard a Thrush singing, 

 and to his somewhat clouded imagination, it 

 seemed to say, "Terrill, Terrill, Terrill, Ter- 

 jrill," "Hot to-day, hot to-day." " Where's 

 /opher'? Where's Zopher?" "Gone to Kay- 

 nor's? gone to Raynor's?" 



Upon hearing this, he became angry at the 

 Thrush and accused him of telling tales, but 

 all to no purpose, for the innocent bird kept 

 right on with his song. The culprit probably 

 told his friends at the tavern about it, and the 

 story has now passed down through several 

 generations, and for myself, I never beard a 

 more apt illustration of this unique song. 

 Every time I hear one of tliese Thrushes sing- 

 ing, the story comes back to me, and now, 

 while I am writing this, the above sentences, 

 if rapidly uttered, bring the song vividly to my 

 mind, and I long for the time to come when I 

 can hear it again in some quiet, sunny nook of 

 the old farm. 0.& O. XIII. July. 1888 p. 105 



The Singing of Birds. B.P.BiokneU. 



Harporhynchus rufus. Brown Thrush. 



The singing-season of this species, beginning with its arrival in 

 April, scarcely lasts through the first week of July, though isola- 

 ted dates of the singing of single birds extend almost to the end 

 of the month. In my records I find no series of reasonably unin- 

 terrupted dates continuing later than the first third of July, but in 

 different years single birds in full song have been heard from the 

 1 8th to the 26th of that month. Thus in one year a perfect song 

 on July 18 was the first heard since the 5th, and in another year 

 songs on the 6th and loth were the last heard except one on the 

 20th. This mis-timed singing must result either from abnormal 

 variation in the singing-time or mere individual caprice. 



The species appears not to possess a second song-period ; but 

 on September 8, 1881. I heard a few song-notes uttered by one of 

 several birds which were regaling themselves on the fruit of a 

 large gum tree (JVyssa) . 



Auk. I, April, ltiB4. p. /»5ji. 



