All of these birds--Rhody less frequently than the others--go up into the tree where there is the greatest concentration of thrashers. The hummers buzz over their heads and dive down at them; the jays sometimes are quiet, but sometimes make a frightful din and act as if there were a snake present. At one time today, also, two tanagers went into the tree occupied by one of the singers, but as they foraged there, I think they were merely seeking food. (They caught insects, which I could see in their bills). Late in the afternoon, at which time R is usually able to negotiate a large mouse successfully, he was given a big one It was a tough one that took a lot of killing followed by much subsequent "limbering up". R then undertook manfully to swallow it, but had to give up ( or preferred to) disgorging it hastily, then to my surprise, ran swiftly to the cage and got a piece of meat. Hr again slept in the old house. August 27th. The day again opened with thrasher song, mostly by one bird, but others were scrapping not far away. About 8:15 there was no song, but 5 or 6 thrashers could be glimpsed down on the bac- charis slope to the north. Loud song now came from the old oak and a thrasher was occupying the highest snag singing with back to the breeze (which ruffled his feathers) facing north, where the other thrashers were. This seemed to offer an opportunity of getting some light upon the reactions of the other thrashers (about 100 yards away) to the song of a single bird presumably singing from his own territory. (Although I can not say that this bird was Neo). (One "theory" at present is that all this is a manifestation of territori- ality). After about ten minutes of song, an answer came from the north and a thrasher began to sing from one of the pines by the north fence. For several minutes the two birds sang alternately, then the bird on the oak dropped to the ground and ran toward the pines, stop- ping however, in the open space by the shop north wall. Here he walked about stiff-leggedly with bill in the air and the other bird joined him, both birds walking about in the same attitude talking and sing- ing--the song being of about the order of quarter song, with no harsh notes. There was no clash; the birds did no circling about each other and never approached closer than about 3 feet and then only in passing. A third thrasher now came from the north and all three went up into the pine at that place and maintained a continuous low conversation mixed with undersong. (Rhody now appeared upon the scene escorted by several humming- birds who dived down at him, but never struck him. (Julio says there were 5). He ignored them completely, paused as if to listen to the thrashers, then accepted an invitation of J's to have a mouse, there- after going to a lath screen over an ailing rhodendron to preen. I went to him, stood three feet from him and exhausted my road-runner vocabulary upon him. He listened with every appearance of respect- ful attention, but made no verbal response and fell to pulling "dandruff" off of his feathers). The thrasher tea-party was still in being as I left to make this record. (9:50 A.M.) It was a much less vociferous affair than yesterday's with fewer guests. 10:30. Everything quiet thrasherwise; but, based on past observations, this does not always mean that the birds have dispersed,