The Brown Thrasher 
43 
because, occasionally, he does eat a little fruit. 
It seems to be a dreadful sin for a fellow in 
feathers to help himself to a strawberry or a 
cherry or a little grain now and then, although, 
having eaten quantities of insects that, but 
for him, would have destroyed them, who has 
earned a better right to a share of the profits? 
Do you think the brown thrasher looks any 
more like a cuckoo than he does like a thrush? 
Simply because he is nearly as long as the dull 
brownish cuckoo and has a brown back, 
though of quite a different tawny shade, 
some boys and girls say it is difficult to tell 
the two birds apart. The cuckoo glides through 
the air as easily as if he were floating ‘down 
stream, whereas the thrasher’s flight, like 
the wren’s, is tilting, uneven, flapping, and 
often jerky. If you make good use of your 
sharp eyes, you will be able to tell many birds 
by their flight alone, long before you can see the 
colour of their feathers. The passive cuckoo has 
no speckles on his light breast, and the yellow- 
billed cuckoo, at least, has white thumb-nail 
spots on his well-behaved tail, which he never 
thrashes, twitches, and balances as the active, 
suspicious thrasher does his. Moreover the 
cuckoo’s notes sound like a tree-toad’s rattle, 
while the thrasher’s song — a merry peal of music 
— entrances every listener. He seems rather 
proud of it, to tell the truth, for although at 
