December 7th and 8th. Being otherwise engaged, I paid little attention to the birds here on these two days. However, Rhody appeared to occupy the west lot most of the time, leaving it only when invited up here for his mouse. He continued to use house No.1 at night. Little was seen of the thrashers, though Neo was given worms once. After having been apparently on the road to recovery, this bird suddenly became worse and died. December 9th. (Sunrise 7:13; sunset 4:50). Following a week of summery weather, this morning dawned dull and cloudy. Thrasher song renewed. About 11;30 A.M., while working in the observatory installing apparatus to move the roof, and making plenty of noise, being shut off from the outside at the same time, I caught distant thrasher music. A thrasher was seen on the top of the Scamell deodor about 150 yards away. I went down to investigate. The bird was singing full song. Another was about ten feet below him in the same tree. Whenever the upper bird started its song the lower one joined in, stopping when the leader stopped. A third thrasher in full song could be heard to the south in Brokenwing's territory: probably that bird himself. The bird in the deodor paid little attention to my proffers of food for some time, but eventually sailed down to accept. Neo, no doubt; the other his mate. The whole performance correlates with past observed behavior of paired thrashers. I now went to look up Rhody, calling him from the west fence. He came out of the bushes, cried and trotted along after me to and into the tool-house for his mouse. (Noon). The smooth cement floor interferes with his traction. He now went to sit in his bush on the bank by the fig tree. At 1:30 he was on the bank near the bush, staring fixedly up the slope at nothing I could see, back toward me and paying me not the slightest attention when I spoke to him. I got a small mouse and returned. He came for it very slowly, ate it and then turned his back on me again to gaze up the slope. I twitched the end of his tail; he merely took two slow steps forward and continued to look up the slope without having looked back at me. I could see no hawks about the place, nor anything else alarming. Four wrentits had been scolding him while in his bush and two were still near, but no longer concerned with him. I left him still engaged in the same performance. Dr. Grinnell and his son came a little after three and I mentioned this incident as inexplicable as far as I could see at the time. The probable explanation, however, came as my visitors were driving west on the driveway. A Cooper hawk dashed across the road just behind their car, only about 4 or 5 feet behind it and not more than 6 feet above the road. This bird was perhaps lurking in the bushes at the time of Rhody's "trance" and he was aware of its presence. In any case, if this is the explanation, it parallels other earlier experiences. Rhody again slept in No. 1.