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it never degenerates into impudence. When left to its own devices and at 
ease, the Catbird often hunches up and fluffs its feathers in a shady retreat 
within hearing distance of its incubating mate and carries on a long low- 
toned monologue, every tone soft and throaty and altogether delicious. 
What it says then is impossible to translate and probably is none of our 
business. 
Economic Status. The Catbird lives largely upon fruit in season, of 
which perhaps a third may 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. 
705. Brown Thrasher. Toxostoma rufum. L, 11-42. Plate LXXVI A. A large, 
reddish-brown bird with long, sweeping tail. Uniform reddish above, creamy white below, 
sharply striped with dark brown on breast and along flanks. 
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, straw-coloured eyes, 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. In Canada, across the southern parts of the 
Dominion west to Alberta. 
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 may 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. 
FAMILY — TROGLODYTIDAE. WRENS 
The Wrens are small brown birds living close to the ground. Though 
diminutive in size they are very energetic and except when brooding or 
asleep are rarely still. They may be recognized by their small size, brown 
coloration, small stubby tail often thrown up over the back, and their 
restless habits, winding in and out amongst the densest brush piles more 
like mice than birds. The Wrens are a large family well distributed over 
the world, but better represented in species in the New than in the Old 
World. Their habitat varies from watery swamps to arid canyons and from 
open thickets to deep dense woods. The family name Troglodytidae, cave- 
dwellers, is derived from their habit of nesting in holes. 
