(9) be no hard feelings resulting. The female will take several worms from me with the standoffish male looking on end, sometimes, will go to him and give him one. She will sometimes hold a meal-worm crosswise in her bill and start digging while still holding the worm, seemingly puzzled to know what to do with it. Once after she had had all she wanted herself, she carried two away and wandered about with them for a minute or two until I called her back to me and offered her still another. She considered this difficult problem for several seconds, then gulped d down the two in her bill as the best solution of making room for the one in my hand. A surprising response One of my brothers was visiting me early in February . I had told him that the thrashers would come when called, perhaps being a little too definite in my enthusiasm. In the early morning we went out to put the matter to test. I did not know where they were at the time and had not been out in the garden since the day before, so was a little shaky. We went into the "orchard" and on my first call, there was a loud full throated answer from the bushes nearby--several phrases of full song--(this had never happened before!) followed by a great rustling in the trees and bushes; one bird came running and flying from one direction and the other from another and both came sliding down the bank accompanied by a shower of pebbles. Even I was startled, as they had never shown such enthusiasm before, and I had been fearful that they might not live up to my earlier boasting, which now seemed modest when compared with the actual performance. Shy before strangers They are somewhat constrained in the presence of strangers, yet some of their best showings of confidence have been made with strangers present and in the open where they do not like to come. A test of courage Thus, three of us were sitting across the driveway from the oval lawn on the steps leading up to the house. They had not seen either