1255 although they are rather indifferent to them as a rule. They also got numerous thick grubs. This is the season when work on lawns usually begins, I believe. (Not checked). September 9th. Rhody spent a long time in the cage during the forenoon and ate five pieces of meat up to 3 P.M., not wanting any mice. At 3, however, he came to me without being called and waited for results.and examining the ground to see if I had tossed unseen worms. I watched to see what his solution would be. It was to gather a sheaf of pine-needles, carefully selected, and carry them to the mirror. Here his impulses failed to function beyond that point, although he looked toward his latest nest tree, so he dropped the needles and went into a spread-eagle sun-pose. (If there were no other evidence, this would show that today is cooler than yesterday but warmer than days on which the open-bowl pose is appropriate). When I moved toward the shop he trotted along too for his first mouse of the day although he had hardly finished wiping his bill after the last of the meat. After downing the mouse he again had a glance at himself in the window. Now Rhody knows my "worm pattern" as well as my "mouse- pat- tern". In approaching me, as he did just now while I was sitting in a chair, he evidently expected worms to be tossed and began looking for them. But I had tossed none and, furthermore, did not follow out the pattern that he is accustomed to at all, for I withheld worms entirely. Consequently he found none but did find pine-needles in their stead. I had failed him. His learn- ing had not encountered such a contingency before, but his instinct told him what to do with the pine needles. Finding them touched the trigger that released the(now feeble)nest building instinct and he took the needles to the mirror as he had been doing while building nests, but there the impulse faded out and he was unable (or indisposed) to carry out the action to its logical conclusion: placing the needles in a nest. Frequent song by Brownie and other thrashers remains the order of the season. September 10th. Rhody's food preference swung decidedly toward the mouse direction today, he having eaten three mice and only one piece of meat (together, of course, with whatever his foraging provided). The mice were not fully grown. They were taken at 11 A.M., 2:30 P.M. and 4 P.M. Much thrasher song during the day and B usually in touch with Nova. September 11th.to-13th., incl. During this period thrasher song continued to be heard almost any time during daylight hours, Brownie singing here and abroad. Rhody showed an increasing tendency to absent himself during the forenoons. On the 13th., at 7:30 A.M. I looked him up at his night-roost; not finding him there, but as I returned to the house, he dropped down from a sycamore in front of the Seamell house and came for