1499 11:30 A.M. Julio tells me that Rhody has just been "chased by a quail". Questioning brought out the fact that a hen quail with six youngsters darted out from under a rhododen- dron at Rhody and chased him about 20 feet, when both birds stop- ped--the quail to return to her brood and Rhody to go to the cage and eat a freshly killed house mouse that I had just caught in a trap. During the rest of the day Rhody was about most of the time. About 5:30 he went to inspect his meat dish, but there were too many yellow-jackets in it to suit him, and, although he reached for the meat once or twice, he withdrew without getting any. He then accepted an invitation to follow to the shop-yard for a mouse No display. The young thrashers paid little further attention to their nest, but occasionally picked up material and carried it about. Moult of young Thrashers. Okil and Chiisai are now very shabby as to plumage--C more so than O. His plumage was rougher from the beginning. Pin-feathers are appearing at various places on them. Natal down not gone. Both still carry remnants of their natal down on the backs of their heads. Chiisai's toe. It is now possible to see a minute, horny pimple coming on the stubby end of Chiisai's injured toe: presumably a new claw. Okil's song. Okil sang much during the day: no full song, but "quarter" and "digging" song sometimes for 10 minutes more or less contin- uously. Digging song. This digging song, so characteristic of the California thrasher, gives one the impression that the bird is most happy in its occupation and, I believe, even the most hardened antianthro- pomorphist seeing the bird thus engaged close at hand, would find it difficult to preserve a completely objective attitude toward it. August 8th. 9:30 A.M. At 7:30 A.M. I went to the cage. The birds, con- trary to custom, did not rush out to me--they were at the nest. Okil was working diligently in it and purposefully. Chiisai, near- by on the ground fussing with material, at once climbed to my shoulder to talk and hop back and forth to the nest. Okil, in- stead of moving twigs about aimlessly, was placing them accurately, and, to my astonishment, soon began to shape the interior (al- though there is little upon which to work) by lying down, flutter- ing his wings and pressing his breast against the almost nonexistent sidewalls! Birds only three months old--in the moult--with natal down on their heads and at the end of the nesting season! When I returned to the outer cage both birds followed. When I drew out the worm-box, both were up on it instantly. This did not surprise me as to O, but Chiisai had never shown such prompt recognition of the import of this action previously. Later, about 9:45, Rhody was present on top of the cage and I refer to him as a witness of a second, though less active manifesta- tion of the nesting instinct. About 10:30 Okil began what proved to be a long digging song, perhaps 10 minutes, of extremely varied character and high quality. Allowing for human fallibility, there were phrases that I have