expected that, in this fine warm weather, he would be in the branches of the tree itself. Mike says that, at 6:30 A.M., he was carrying nesting material nearby. The thrasher west of the fence sang a great deal during the day. He is coming into this garden oftener and it looks as if he has an eye on Brownie's old territory. I have not yet been able to fit words to any of his music, so different is it from Brownie's Possibly his song at present, which seems to consist of repeating the same musical phrase over and over again, is merely intended as a brief announcement that he claims the territory. Or perhaps it is merely a contact song addressed to a brooding mate. May 27th. At 5:45 the thrasher was singing near the west fence. Call him Poniente: Spanish for West, or, say, Poni for short. At 7:55 Rhody began carrying twigs to nest 8-37. Now, 8:20 A.M., Okii and Chiisai are in their cage a foot or two from this machine. O is occasionally practicing his song. I pointed the motion picture camera at them from a distance of about 2 feet. Chiisai immediately squalled loudly. I removed the camera and pointed my finger at him. He opened his mouth. Okii was little disturbed by the camera. It would appear, then, that when C squalls at the approach of Rhody, it is not necessarily because of fear of R as a killer, but as a large, strange object of unknown potentialities. In other words: Chiisai has no instinctive fear of road-runners as such, and his reaction toward R does not constitute a reproach of that bird. 11 A.M. Since writing the above I have had another opportunity to observe R at the thrashar cage. (Two opportunities, rather, about an hour apart). I had the fledglings in their cage in the upper garden with the motion picture camera set up and focuses on them, with a home-made remote control arrangement operable from the vicinity of the cage. About 9:45 Rhody came, Chiisai squalled once and then subsided but watchful. O slightly nervous. R came to within a foot of the cage, raised his crest and retired to get a twig and carry it clear up over the roof of his house to nest 8-29.-37 About 10:45 he came again (as silently as a ghost) and stood quietly 3 feet from the cage. O squalled once, briefly. R approached the cage slowly (eventually to within 2 feet, the youngsters keeping absolutely still (I think--but the film may show otherwise). R was more interested in the possibility of food from me than in the thrashers--as the film will show--I trust. Shortly he saw a rat at a bird-bath under a rhododendron 30 feet away and trotted over to investigate, following the rat a short way--slowly-- as it retired into the shrubbery. R now came back to the cage, offering no harm to the inmates, but looking in the ground-cover for worms he might have overlooked. When he got tired of this and left, he followed to the tool-house for his reward. Now followed an incident out of the usual run of these affairs. The medium sized mouse I offered him was taken with some indifference after waiting and crying in order to see if I would not produce a smaller one. However, he took it, killed, but abandoned it, and started toward the magpie cage. I thought the show was over and left via the shop-yard and shop; but, as I was about to pass out of the shop into the patio, I heard a hruh, hroo behind me, and Rhody was standing in the door to the