even when they had not attacked it, nor had they "reasoned" that there is such a possibility. Their treatment of yellow-jackets caught by them differed from their treatment of flies, from the very beginning, in that the former were always given more thorough treatment and never eaten without it, whereas flies were frequently swallowed at once, though not always. Ann February 22nd. 9:30. I have just had an experience with the thrashers showing something of their capacity to learn by observation and experience. Now I have made no attempt to tame the two youngsters of B's present brood. I visited the nest rarely while they were in it and have not cultivated their acquaintance, except indirectly through Brownie, by giving him worms for them. On a few occasions (all recorded in these notes) they have followed him to a few yards from me, and there waited for him to serve them. A half hour ago, when seeking to determine whether the thrasher in the new nest was B or N, by the indirect method of looking for Brownie in the orchard, I saw one of the youngsters outside to the fence, all alone. On seeing me it ran away from me parallel to the fence, reached an opening under it, reversed its course and ran back about 10 feet directly toward me, having apparently come through the opening in order to reach me. It stopped about 10 feet away and stood quietly facing me. I tossed a worm to it, which it picked up and ate, coming closer and closer as I dropped each successive worm closer to myself, until it stood within reach near my knee, waiting for each worm offered. This was my first attempt to gain the confidence of this bird and its first experience of me as an actual direct provider of food. It seems reasonable to suppose that it had already learned by previous observation that Brownie got from me the worms that he had been giving it (or that Brownie was likely to be found in my presence and hence, in B's absence, it instinctively came to me). Whatever interpretation may be put upon this behavior, it seems clear, that somewhere in the chain of events, learning entered the picture. Certainly this youngster was not equipped at birth with a pattern which included me as an instinctive source of a gratifying sensation, otherwise it would have come to me from the very beginning. Incidentally the bird in the nest was proved to be Brownie's mate, because on leaving the youngster after B came to feed him, I returned to the nest and found the mate still there and B still with his offspring. It looks, then, as if B had prevailed upon his mate to get to busy. (Otherwise expressed: The time has come for her natural impulses to prevail, insofar as they bear upon reproduction). Up to about 10:30, when I left, Rhody had not been seen, even in any of his nests. When I returned at noon he was lying in 1-36 doing nothing. He reappeared at the cage at 2:10, coming from the direction of 1-36. He did not go inside but stared at the inner compartment for a minute or two, then departed for 2-36 where was found later. At 5 P.M., without having been seen in the meantime, he reappeared at the cage, on top, came to me for a mouse and took it to nest 1-36 after his usual display at the mirror. At 5:30 he was still there when I left. While I have no positive check upon his movements, I believe he was in one or other of the nests practically all of the time that he was not near the cage. That would be 2 hours or more in each.