Brown Thrasher

A June morning — the topmost branch of a wild cherrv in bloom and a THRASHER singing.

Look here! look here! look here! Outpours a medley of song. The listener will have no difficulty in detecting notes of Vireo, Wren, Thrush, Blackbird, Robin and a number of other bird calls given with individual slurring and commingling which fully entitles it to the sobriquet of "Mockingbird of the North."

Besides this imitative talent he possesses a remarkably brilliant repertoire of his own, with full, strong notes as characteristic as his personality. The distance they carry is almost unbelievable, the song can be heard half a mile away. Story books often picture a bird singing over his brooding mate but the Thrasher is far too wise for that. Sometimes he sings within a few hundred feet but the performance is not given in the proximity of the home. When danger threatens, the alarm note of the parent on duty calls the mate and they face the intruder with bristling feathers and defiant battle calls. If the would-be despoiler is a black snake they attack with such fury that he is usually driven off. In one instance a pair killed the enemy and fed bits of its body to their young!

Even man does not daunt them. They will sometimes strike the hand or face so violently as to draw blood. In other instances they seem to realize the futilty of resistance, and plead plaintively from the bushes for mercy.

They have been heard to utter a low booming note, audible only within a small radius. In voicing this call the bill is not open and throat feathers are undisturbed. This is undoubtedly an individual characteristic, for many observers, who are thoroly familiar with the bird have never heard it.