1615 Or it may have been one of Neo's surviving youngsters. Rhody's moul.t. When seen resting quietly and composedly at arm's length. it is seen that a large proportion of Rhody's body feathers have lost their tips entirely and some of them have have the tips merely frayed, as to the vanes, the rhachis being still intact. also there are now many gaps where his skin can be seen and he is shabby. I picked up a newly moulted rectrix of his: one of the mid- dle ones, and am not now certain that all the old feathers in his tail have fallen out. There are several new ones about half grown. He is now staying home most of the time and still sleeping in house No. 1 on the west lot. He continues to visit the owl in the office. August 16th to 18 th., incl. Thrashers song in the morning continued and the birds are now seen at almost any time in and about the place, many of them stranger The confused singing of the "Convention season" is being heard more often. Rhody remained in domestic mood during this period and did not fail to look up the owl each day. Once, when I saw him through the shop window to the north, I held up the owl for him to see and he immediately responded with a rattle-boo and came for a closer look not, however, crawling. On one of these days he had three mice. He continued to sleep in house 1. August 19th (Sunrise 5:27, sunset 6:59). Thrasher "Convention" now in full swing. At 5:10 A.M. I was first aware of thrasher song close to the house. From then until 8:30 A.M., when there was a short period of silence, it was one continuous chorus not, as is usual in the convention period, of the highest thrasher quality, there being at such times, more of the harsher sounds. At 8 A.M. I found the birds had gathered in the trees near the cage--a place much favored in previous years. I could distinguish three different songs simultaneously, all on different themes--no two alike. I could also see not less than two others with certainty at the same time who were silent. There were certainly not less than 5 present and undoubtedly more. One of the silent ones, seen briefly at 10 feet distance was almost certainly Neo. At 8:30 song ceased completely and I thought the birds had gone away, so went out to investigate. In about 5 minutes one was heard to scrip; then full song of another was heard about 20 feet from me in a small oak across the driveway from the old oak. This bird, who was not Neo, remained singing without shifting position for about half an hour right in the heart of Neo's most sacred territory. He would pay no attention when I tossed him worms, and his song was "new". The "scripper" moved about from tree to tree and could not be approached closely, but was almost certainly Neo. He was joined by another (N2?) and they foraged. Thrashers were now "everywhere" again and I located 5 singers, all going at once and none--as far as I could determine-- using the same phrases. They were not now in the same tree or group of trees. At 10 A.M. they were still at it, but shifting from place. While stalking one of them I heard a sound behind me and Rhody stepped out of the bushes, immediately assuming the "open bowl" sunning pose as if pretending that he had no other purpose in mind for joining me. However, when I headed for the tool-house, he trotted along behind and was given a large mouse. It was too large