OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE WISCONSIN AND ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETIES. 
One Year 25 Cents ILLINOIS NUMBER Single Copy 5 Cents 
Published by the Wisconsin Audubon Society at Appleton, Wisconsin 
Entered as second class matter, May 16, 1904, at Appleton, Wis., under the act of Congress of Mar, 3. ’79. 
VOL. XL NOVEMBER, 1908. No. 5 
THE BROWN THRASHER. 
The Brown Thrasher is a common, 
everyday bird, from May to September, 
in West Roxburw, Roslindale and Need- 
iain, Massachusetts. It arrives in this 
vicinity about the first week in May; a 
few may sometimes be seen during the 
last week of 
April, but so 
far as I have 
observed,this 
is unusual. 
They gener¬ 
ally arrive in 
pairs, and, 
when first 
seen among 
the under¬ 
growth of pas¬ 
ture and road- 
i side, are very 
shv and sus¬ 
picious. and 
show no sign 
of that brav¬ 
ery which 
some of them 
later display 
in defense of 
their young. 
As they flit 
across the road, from thicket to thicket, 
at this time of the year, they frequently 
make me think of a reddish, wind-blown 
leaf. 
Some of the birds begin housekeeping 
a few days after their arrival, as I have 
found a bird sitting on four eggs on May 
10. Nests are composed of coarse twigs, 
bark and dead leaves, and, at times, dry 
grass is used; the lining is generally fine 
roots; rarelv, it is a combination of fine 
roots and fine twigs, and one nest I ex¬ 
amined was lined with bark and dry 
grass. As a rule, the structures are well 
made, but some of the ground nests, 
when taken up, do not retain their shape. 
The favorite nesting localities are neg¬ 
lected, overgrown pastures and the bor¬ 
ders of woods. 
Most of the 
nests I have 
found were 
placed on the 
ground, but 
they are fre¬ 
quently built 
in bushes and 
tangles of 
vines, and, on 
rare occasions 
a nest may be 
found in a 
tree; Nests in 
bushesare not 
dffiicult to 
find,but those 
placed on the 
ground are. 
very well con- 
c e a 1 e d . A 
good way to 
find the latter 
is to pick out a likely looking pasture, 
beat over it, and in this way, flush the 
bird, which is a close sitter, from the nest. 
While the young are in the nest, the 
parents generally are very brave, flying 
at and, sometimes, hitting the intruder, 
and thev look fierce enough with their 
staring yellow eyes and sharp curving 
bills, to frighten avvav manv small bovs 
who would, otherwise, rob their homes. 
Nuttall savs: “One of the parents, usually 
the male,seems almost continually occu- 
BKOWN THRASHER WITH YOUNG UNDER HER. 
Photographed by George P. Perry 
