factor in the diet of thrashers. Alarms. There were two alarms earlier in the morning. One of them brought both thrashers scripping to the vicinity of the glade, also many other birds. I could find nothing unusual except a flock of Western Bluebirds on top of the Sparrow Hawk pine. Brownie watched them pretty closely and climbed to the top of the old oak for a better view. It is a curious thing that, when one of these alarms occurs, many of the birds that gather sit around quietly and preen, while Brownie, if present, will often drop down from limb to limb to take a worm offered him over my head, still calling excitedly and then return to the center of attraction. Excitement no deterrent to eating. More alarms. 2:50 P.M. There were two more alarms following the two above. One of them was caused by a stray cat about 50 feet from the nest, outside the fence. Both thrashers flew into a tree near it and scrip- ped loudly. Finally one went back to the nest and the other perched on the wind-screen there and kept watch for fully 15 minutes. (Temp.66 November 4th. A good feed. 7:45 A.M. (Temp. 57) A strong north wind is blowing intermit- tently. The screen affords good protection. Greenie was on the nest and Brownie soon arrived. I held the open worm box by the nest and both adults made haste to cram worms, two or three at a time, down the gullets of their offspring. It was a grand feed. Greenie sees the light. 9:00 A.M. Greenie, on the nest without the moral support of Brownie's presence, was offered a worm. She did not know whether to freeze or not, but finally took it. This brought her face to face with a new problem: whether to freeze with bill pointed to the sky as usual, eat it, or pass it on to the nestlings. She made her decision rather quickly and gave it to one of the youngsters. That broke the ice and thereafter, on this occasion, she met me more than half way, reaching for each worm as it was offered without restraint,