young thrasher makes after leaving the nest: kip, kip,kip, a few seconds separating the kips. This meant: at least one bird out of the nest. Going there, I found the caller sitting,back toward me, on a twig about l foot from the nest; so the diagnosis was correct, though by a rather narrow margin! When he saw me he changed his mind about faring forth and returned to the nest, dropping the kip call and join- ing his nestmate in the fairy chorus. While I was giving them a good feed Brownie returned,without food, helped in the operation, then ate heartily himself. The youngster settled down for a nap with B partly hovering them. (Warm in the glade, but chilly wind from the north: temp. 58: only a few hundredths of an inch of rain in the last 30 days--total). within This kip call has never been heard from\ the nest at this place. It is the usual call for the first few days after leaving. These young birds are now 16 days old, both being born on the same day. There was an Argentine ant on one of them (which B did not see). The nest has been free of them. There has been, from the first, a barrage of ant poison about the base of the tree. This is the first ant seen in the nest, and may mean the beginning of an invasion. 11:30 A.M. B may have been aware of the ants as he has been $ spending a lot of time sitting on the edge of the nest since last ob- seration. Also he seems to be preparing the glade for the reception of the brood, attacking the quail fiercely and driving them out, pulling out tufts of their feathers in the process. The smaller birds he is not molesting at present. I just noted that the droppings are still enclosed in a sheath, B having brought some from the nest and dropped them near me. About 10 minutes ago a visitor stood with me at the nest. When I called his attention to the fairy chorus, he said that he heard it, but was unaware that the sound came from the nest into which he was