Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Contributed by Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley.
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Transcription
in the least.
A low call was heard perhaps 100 feet away. Brownie raised
her head and replied, full voice, with a series of rich phrases of
exceeding complexity. This was about 11:45. (It is now 12:03)
New call by G. From the top of the old oak another full-voiced call sounded
of several phrases, and then an entirely new one consisting of three
long, loud, clear peers all pitched the same and on one note without
variation of any kind. When I tried the piano to locate the pitch,
the third C above middle C (Counting middle C as C1) seemed to satisfy
my ear exactly. Brownie left the nest to go to the glade and I followed.
When she jumped to my knee, Greenie came out of the brush for his
share. She turned her head when he was about 3 feet away and greeted
him with one loud clear note to which he responded, This is the
heard
shortest distance at which I have a full call, and I got the impression
that Brownie did not know he was so near. They picked up twigs after
they had had enough to eat and left in the direction of Dorm. A.
It is getting harder to persuade myself that, this nesting
activity I am witnessing the operation of a mere reflex and that it
will spend itself without worth-while accomplishment in a few days.
B's full song
from ground
near visitor At 2:30 I went to the glade with a visitor. Greenie came first;
I had just left Brownie working at the nest. G was pretty shy.
After about 10 or 15 minutes, during which I did not call, B came
running in, stopped about 8 feet from us, and uttered a series of
full-voiced phrases, much to my surprise. I could not identify any of
them with those recorded in these notes, but they were of great beauty,
and my visitor who had never heard a thrasher before was entranced
and a little bit awed by the power and richness of the song and its
unexpectedness. I had just been explaining that these birds do not
sing very frequently at any time of day and that such singing as they
do is mostly in the early morning, but that they may break out at any
time. Brownie was not shy of this visitor, but acted almost as if