1229 him everything from a fairly large, young white rat down to a very small mouse of ordinary color. He wanted none of them, but seem to take an interest in my display of mammalian resources and hung about indefinitely. Perhaps he is studying man and his parasites and will communicate his findings to the road-runner world through whatever medium seems most appropriate. Brownie, who has not yet quite reached the maximum of shabbi- ness, is staying home more and singing more. There are signs that indicate the coming of the local, annual convention of thrash- ers. I have not checked over back notes to determine whether this is the right time; but he is going up into high trees where meet- ings were held last year and calling to all points of the compass loudly. In these calls he is occasionally inserting his new picky- yuri phrase, developed this year. I am positive he did not have it last year. He is also beginning to follow up these somewhat staccato, articulated "words" with unaccented, rolling warbles having no pronounced rhythm. This was characteristic of last year's conventions. So far I have observed no response to his efforts, other than that they frequently induce Nova to come from somewhere and answer with her peculiar high-pitched voice, especially when he sounds his whistle-kiss or his purple-one-two-three. (I will now look up notes and find when "conventions" were noted last year? I think it was in August). I will tabulate observations bearing upon this point from last year's notes and see where we arrive: Sub-song cycle reappearing........ about July 12, 1935. (Compare July 10-12 notes 1936). Long sub-songs...................... " 16-17, '35. "Relaxing territorial claims"........ Aug. 9-12, '35. "Calling other thrashers", "Assembled Nova and two others"..... Aug.13-16, '35. It looks then as if B's present activities will lead up to conventions as in 1935. July 19th. From early in the morning until about 9 A.M. Brownie has been repeating activities noted above, Nova the only one responding. Rhody was not in his night roost at 6:45 A.M., nor was he to be found here, although that does not necessarily mean that he was not here, for he is practically invisible if he does not definite- ly want to be seen. The Clay Feet of the Idol. I went out to locate Rhody, after having been busy for several hours, at about 4 P.M. First, I found a neat pile of feathers not far from the cage, but no Rhody. Examination of the feathers indicated that they were from a young bird, probably a brown towhee. I was about to give up the search when Rhody stepped placidly out of the bushes near me and picked up a young towhee partly denuded of its feath- ers and began to complete the job. Since this is a veracious record, I went to get the movie camera to record the frailty of our hero despite my aversion to advertize it. On my return I found he had attempted to swallow it while I was away, but that