Brownie was so much enamoured of this sound that he continued to make it while sitting on my knee. This sound has been referred to before in these notes, though it is seldom uttered. The extraordinary versatility of the thrasher's vocalizations, whether in talk or song, has been repeatedly noted herein; also his penchant for assigning (what appears to me to be the case) some particular subject matter for discussion with his mate and me at any time suiting his fancy. On such occasions, for example, B&G will be found in the bushes in the glade, exchanging at short intervals, some short succession of notes or phrases in which some definitely recognizable phrase is present. This may continue for several minutes and, so far, seems to be merely a means of keeping in touch with each other; but on the next occasion the "theme phrase" may be entirely different and generally is. In fact, it may never be heard again--or at least, recognized again. Then, again, it may be heard days, weeks or months after on some other conversational occasion. When the birds are talking thus and one of them comes to me, that one continues repeating this phrase usually. By talking to it I can sometimes get it to change it. Often only one bird, usually Brownie, is present. When he jumps upon my knee he may be as silent as an oyster and I may be unable to get any sound what- ever out of him. At other times he may initiate the conversation by uttering a sequence of notes or articulated syllables and, for that particular occasion, refuse to change it, as if it had some definite significance that he wished to convey to me. On the other hand, he may change it at once. If these birds are following a definite pattern in their talk, I have not been able to detect it, nor have I succeeded in discovering that any particular phrase carries with it any exclusive association. Thus, for example, the parental cluck, cluck, cluck, used to attract the attention of a nestling that is not responding promptly to an offer of food has also repeatedly been used by both thrashers