so naturally it was Rhody. Nothing was seen of his mate. The nest has grown materially and, at present, it looks like a serious effort. May 2nd. 2nd. 10:30 A.M. Rhody not seen or heard here this morning, but this does not necessarily mean that he has not been here. Young thrasher takes worms from hand. The young thrasher, in the absence of Brownie at the nest, came to me of his own accord and took worms from hand for the first time. He has been out of the nest now 23 days. He begins to look more slender. Shadow boxing. A little later B came and stuffed the youngster well with soft food and gave him a lesson in shadow boxing in which the parent allowed himself to be defeated and driven from the field. This is all true to form. No magpie eggs. No magpie eggs. In this case Oof could not have run off with it even if there had been one, since he has been separated from his mate. R returns and takes afternoon off. About 1 P.M. I took a turn about the place to see if Rhody had returned. He had and was resting. It soon appeared that this was to be his afternoon off, as he did not leave the place until 5:30, going into the lot to the west where I followed him until 6:10 without discovering his final destination for the day on account of the dense growth which handicapped my progress, but not his. He did not seem to mind my trailing him. Several times when I had lost him he came placidly out of the thicket to loiter about me for a few minutes, then to return. His course could be approximated roughly by the scolding of the wren-tits, bush tits and plain titmice and spotted towhees, who do not like him. This thicket is made up of scrub live oak, baccharis, mimulus (diplacus), sage, hazel, cascara, soap-root, gooseberry, blackberry, poison oak (my chief obstacle), etc.