1429 During the rest of the day, until time to go to roost, Rhody hung around most of the time, not appearing to have any important duties to perform. About mid-afternoon he was given a mouse, which he took to nest 1-36 and reappeared shortly after without it. The magpies engaged a lot of his attention, and he got meat from the cage. Still later he caught a lizard inside the cage and began his ritual combined with search through the cage. This included the back of the mirror, which leans against the wire netting outside, and the upper annex. He finally ate the lizard without coming out, and composed himself for a long rest inside until it was time to start his march for the west lot. April 8th. Rhody's first appearance today was at breakfast time, when he presented himself at the French window leading to the upper garden and whined at me inside at the table. He was given a mouse, re- ceived it with elaborate ceremony, presented it at various windows, and then took it up to the roof. Brownie, about 9 A.M., found me at the cage. He now perform- ed a new feat: with his bill full of worms, he made his whistle- kiss call, his purple-one-two-three and other musical phrases. After this he ate all of the worms which he had carefully prepared for his brood, then came back for more. These he took away. I was left with the impression that he still "felt" that the family cought to be here and not at Robinson's, and as they did not respond to his blue-bird call while he searched through the bushes, he was calling for them more imperatively. While this is pure speculat- ion, his brood ought to be fairly large now, and it is not impossi- ble that he really wants to get them to come over here. 11:05. I have the answer to this now: Brownie's brood is death. About 10:45 B came to me again for worms, got and carefully prepared about 10. He then, after gathering them all up, put them down, picked up one, carried it to the edge of the shrubbery and peered into the shadow fixedly. He then came back and ate all of the worms. Obviously, the thing for me to do was to go over to the Robinson's and have a look at the nest, which I now expected to find empty. Arriving at the holly, I immediately found a young thrasher, not quite old enough to leave the nest, dead in the branches. It could have been dead but a few hours. The nest was empty. There were no signs of Nova or other young birds; no evidence of a struggle and no Argentine ants. I am inclined to think that this one chick constituted the entire brood- that it fell out of the nest. I carried the dead chick home and called B to come and have a look, thinking he might possibly try to feed it, or show some other signs of recognition. He came promptly enough, but spread wings and tail and made that scolding "hail" that mated thrashers often make when meeting. I held the chick close to the worm box. B got his worms, but seemed shy of the dead bird and did not offer to feed it; "scolded" and ate the worms himself, then fell to strenuous digging in the litter of leaves nearby. Perhaps B will decide to stay home amd nest after this ex- perience! The chick seemed to be in perfect physical condition.