18 THE AU DU. BO Neb Utils kg ei 
Brown Thrasher (Toxostoma rutum]) 
By Anna C. Ames 
The term thrasher is perhaps derived from the bird’s habit of using its 
long, strong bill much as a haymaker uses his pitchfork in speading hay. 
With powerful, sidewise strokes, the bird sends the leaves flying wildly 
about and then pauses to pick up food morsels exposed. The name might 
come from the bird’s vigorous switching of its long tail, a performance 
characteristic when he is nervous or angry and an action by which he 
scems to emphasize certain notes of his song. 
The Brown Thrasher, state bird of Georgia, is about eleven inches 
long. He is reddish-brown above, with light buffy underparts streaked 
with brown. The bill is nearly the length of the head and curved downward 
somewhat at the tip. The wings are rather short and rounded and have two 
white wing-bars. The rounded tail is nearly as long as the body proper. 
The eyes are straw-colored and “glaring” when the bird is disturbed or 
angry. The sexes are alike in coloration. 
The haunts, habits and disposition of the Brown Thrasher are said to 
differ in different parts of its range. In New England it is a shy, retiring 
bird of open rural districts. It likes a bit of thick, tangled growth for its 
nest, which is frequently near a house. On our five-acre tract on the out- 
skirts of a Missouri town, Brown Thrashers nested on the ground and in a 
lilac bush, a grape arbor, and a tree not far from a bush that held a cat- 
bird’s nest. The thrasher almost always objects to the presence of others 
of its own species in its nesting territory. It is a mortal enemy of the Cat- 
bird during the breeding season, and has been known to battle with it to 
the death over a disputed nesting site. 
The nest of the Brown Thrasher is a cup-shaped, bulky, flat, rather 
coarse-looking structure of twigs, rootlets, leaves, and some feathers, lined 
with fine rootlets. It is placed not very far from the ground. Construction 
requires from six to ten days, with both birds taking part. In courtship, 
the female is said to take the initiative. The eggs, from three to five in 
number, vary from pale greenish-white to pale buff, usually profusely 
sprinkled with minute spots of reddish-brown over the entire surface. There 
are two broods a season. When the young have left the first nest, they are 
left to the care of the male while the female builds a second nest. The male 
assists in the incubation and care of the young, although he is said to be 
no more constant in his marital relations than the house wren. The in- 
cubation period is between two and three weeks. The young give their first 
call, a lound “smack”, at the age of six weeks, and two weeks later begin 
to sing gently, continuing all winter. By the following May they are in 
full song. 
Spring has really come when the cherry trees bloom and one hears 
again the song of a Brown Thrasher perched at the top of a tree. Thrashers 
differ in song from other members of their family in that they repeat each 
phrase of a song before going on to the next one. The bird poses with 
head held high, bill wide open, and long tail drooping. He vibrates with 
the ecstasy of his loud, cheerful song. Thrashers are one of the first birds 
to cease singing in the summer. Usually they sing until their eggs are laid 
and then cease until the young are out of nest. Sometimes the second nest- 
