preoccupations of the moment, when food is offered, is an old story at this place. Neo now returned to his pine to sing and I came out from unde it finding Rhody waiting there patiently. (10:30). He had had a tiny mouse at 8 A.M. and, during all the forgoing episodes had been preening calmly on top of one of his favored lath screens. We now went to the tool-house, Rhody again getting there first. I gave him another small one and went into the shop to wash my hand. I found Rhody, having polished off his mouse, was now in the door looking in. I thought it was the owl that had attracted him, but, as he did not come in, decided that he wanted still another mouse. And that was the correct answer. Rhody's judgment of his own capacity when offered a mouse too large for his vacant space, has been commented upon here often. Here we have an example of the converse: when the mouse is too small. Singing continued off and on up until about noon. There was then a fairly silent period for about an hour (perhaps less). About 1 o'clock I went down to listen to Neo, now singing from the north pines. These song continued until 1:20 when they both stopped at the same time, as if turned off by the switch. A quiet period of ten minutes fol- lowed. North-bird could not be found. Neo was walking along the fence towards Rhody's No. 2 house-tree. Neo now had to sing again. No response from a rival. He cam down on his own initiative to get worms from me, sunfitting in between worms. (76°). He began to talk to a mate (?) unseen; headed for his pine (Tree N) and resumed song. 1:50, still at it. I listened carefully during each of these three singing periods. During the first one he seemed to try to make all the different sounds he could think of. It became comical. In the second one he dropped some of the earlier phrases and intro- duced some not caught by me in the first. This song was much less varied. In the third, now in full swing, (1:55) he sounds like an entirely different bird. I can not catch any of his earlier phrases, but, of course, perhaps 90% of them can not be remembered at all. It is the striking ones I have to depend on. 1:58, Silence. I go and find him making "passes" at the surface of the oval lawn. He runs toward me as I make gestures, then watches the worms as they descend toward from the high place where I stand. He seems to be alone and works toward his pine, deflecting for a moment into the rhododendrons on this side of the road, then going to the pine to dig and sing digging song beneath the shrubbery. N2 (I thought she must be somewhere not far away, judging by Neo's talk) runs out from near the place where Neo looked and crosses the road, disappearing over the rim of the bank. Neo resumes sing-diggin but comes out occasionally to get worms from me, still singing his little song. Finally he works toward the glade and, at 2:16, his full song is heard from that direction. I had to leave for the afternoon. Rhody again slept in his old house, No.1. September 13th. Nesting reaction (I forgot to record yesterday that once, while moving about under the pine near me, he ran to a small heap of pine needles, selected one, ran off with it quickly, but in pass- ing a drinking place, dropped it, drank and forgot all about it. I did not hear the thrashers until 5:45 A.M., when they were already in the garden. Scattered song continued several hours and,