306 
BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
brown ; upper parts reddish-brown ; greater wing-coverts edged with, and middle 
lower parts, white ; breast, sides and crissum strongly tinged with reddish-brown ; 
breast, sides and flanks conspicuously spotted with dark brown. 
Habitat .—Eastern United States, west to Rocky mountains, north to southern 
Maine, Ontario and Manitoba, south to the Gulf States, including eastern Texas. 
Accidental in Europe. 
Common summer resident from about April 20 to late in September. 
The Brown Thrush, as this bird is usually called, is found in thickets 
and shrubbery; he frequently, especially in the morning* and evening*, 
repairs to the tops of trees, where, for hours at a time, he sing’s his varied 
and beautiful song. Like our common domestic fowls, he frequently 
may be seen scratching among the dead leaves or dusting himself by 
the roadside. He sometimes visits fields, where com is being planted, 
to pick up the scattered grains of maize, and some farmers assert that 
he often “ pulls up corn ” when it first appears above the ground. This 
species breeds usually in low bushes, in briery thickets, sometimes on 
the tops of old stumps covered with thick vines; very rarely, with us, 
do they build on the ground. The nest is a loose and bulky structure 
composed of small twigs, strips of bark, leaves, rootlets, etc. The eggs, 
four or five in number, are a light greenish or buffy color, thickly 
speckled with reddish brown. They are a little more than an inch long, 
and about three-quarters wide. 
Although these birds are generally shy and retiring, they will, if their 
eggs or young are disturbed, display great bravery in defending them. 
They will fly violently into a person’s face and strike with both bill and 
claws. When their home is invaded by a black snake, they assail such 
intruder in a most vigorous manner. I once saw a dog, which had 
upset a nest containing young thrushes, forced to make a speedy retreat 
when attacked by the old birds, who flew at his head and struck him in 
the eyes. The Brown Thrush feeds chiefly on insects, berries and small 
seeds. The following interesting remarks concerning this species are 
taken from Audubon’s Birds of America, Yol. Ill : “ My friend Bach¬ 
man who has raised many of these bilds, has favored me with the fol¬ 
lowing particulars respecting them: ‘ Though good-humored towards 
the person who feeds them, they are always savage towards all other 
kinds of birds. I placed three sparrows in the cage of a Thrush one 
evening, and found them killed, as well as nearly stripped of their feath¬ 
ers, the next morning. So perfectly gentle did this bird become, that 
when I opened its cage, it would follow me about the yard and garden. 
The instant it saw me take a spade or a hoe, it would follow at my heels, 
and, as I turned up the earth, would pick up every insect or worm thus 
exposed to its view. I kept it for three years, and its affection for me 
at last cost it its life. It usually slept on the back of a chair in my 
study, and one night the door being accidentally left open, it was killed 
by a cat. I once knew of a few of these birds to remain the whole of a 
mild winter in the State of New York in a wild state.’” 
