912 At 9:30 A.M. Nova was on duty. B again went to the same place off to the south west to enter his song competition with the other thrasher. Rhody was singing in the oriental plane tree in front of the Scamells' at 9:40 and as I stood there talking to him, Brownie came running across the street and jumped up to my hand. Three times more during the forenoon while I was watching Rhody at different places, B came and looked me up. On one of these occasions when R rattle-booded B gave a momentary start but paid no further atten- ton to similar efforts on the part of R, who was about 10 feet away. B seems to have no fear of R at any distance beyond 3 or 4 feet. Shift was changed at 10:40, neither bird indicating that it was desired. B slipped up to the nest silently and touched Nova with his beak. After a little bubbling she got out and B stepped in, looking at the eggs and apparently moving them with his bill. I slipped my hand under him, but the platform is too low to enable me to reach the bottom. (This nest is higher than its predecessor). B merely opened his beak once and showed neither fear nor annoyance. (These notes show that the birds make this same gesture toward each other). Speculation on relative ages of Greenie and Nova. It has been noted that Greenie's song was of the same quality, pitch and phraseology (both musical and verbal) as B's, and that from the first she was believed to be a young bird. Nova's song, on the other hand, differs in all these respects from B's, and these notes record from the first the impression that she is an old bird. The difference in the songs of these two females suggests that again that Greenie really was a very young bird when she first began going with B, had not yet developed her own individual song and learned singing from B, whereas Nova, an old timer, learnt in another school and arrived here with individuality fixed.