Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds 
Brown Thrasher 
( Harporhyncbus rufusj Thrasher and Mocking-bird family 
Called also: BROWN THRUSH; GROUND THRUSH; RED 
THRUSH ; BROWN MOCKING-BIRD ; FRENCH MOCK- 
ING-BIRD; MAVIS 
Length — n to ii. 5 inches. Fully an inch longer than the robin. 
Male — Rusty red-brown or rufous above ; darkest on wings, which 
have two short whitish bands. Underneath white, heavily 
streaked (except on throat) with dark-brown, arrow-shaped 
spots. Tail very long. Yellow eyes. Bill long and curved 
at tip. 
Female — Paler than male. 
Range — United States to Rockies. Nests from Gulf States to 
Manitoba and Montreal. Winters south of Virginia. 
Migrations — Late April. October. Common summer resident. 
“ There’s a merry brown thrush sitting up in a tree; 
He is singing to me ! He is singing to me ! 
And what does he say, little girl, little boy ? 
‘ Oh, the world’s running over with joy ! ’ ” 
The hackneyed poem beginning with this stanza that de- 
lighted our nursery days, has left in our minds a fairly correct 
impression of the bird. He still proves to be one of the peren- 
nially joyous singers, like a true cousin of the wrens, and when 
we study him afield, he appears to give his whole attention to 
his song with a self-consciousness that is rather amusing than 
the reverse. “What musician wouldn’t be conscious of his own 
powers,” he seems to challenge us, “if he possessed such a gift ?” 
Seated on a conspicuous perch, as if inviting attention to his per- 
formance, with uplifted head and drooping tail he repeats the 
one exultant, dashing air to which his repertoire is limited, with- 
out waiting for an encore. Much practice has given the notes a 
brilliancy of execution to be compared only with the mocking- 
bird’s ; but in spite of the name “ferruginous mocking-bird” 
that Audubon gave him, he does not seem to have the faculty of 
imitating other birds’ songs. Thoreau says the Massachusetts 
farmers, when planting their seed, always think they hear the 
thrasher say, “ Drop it, drop it — cover it up, cover it up— pull it 
up, pull it up, pull it up.” 
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