1609 February 1st. (Sunrise 7:14, sunset 5:32). Heavy rain last night. Early thrasher song not heard. At 9 A.M. Neo was not home, but there was singing off to the north-east and down in Brokenwing's territory. (Rainy). 9:30 still not home; no song from N.E., but BW singing as before. 10:00. Patches of sunlight in the distance; both sun and rain here. S.E. wind. 10:50. After a heavy shower the sky became a vast dome of blue in a surprisingly short time. Neo not at home. I went to the north-west corner of the place, not having heard anything from that direction, called without raising my voice. Neo answered from the thicket and came out for food. I came back to get worms and meat; on returning, found he had left. My guess was that he had followed me part way and that I would find him at his old place, after I had looked up Rhody. I now started down the "inside passage" to look for that bird thinking that the sun would have lured him from his house. I was surprised to hear his full song ahead of me in the thicket, and found him in the middle of my path. I crouched 4 feet from him and offered meat. His response was to sing again--at this close range! He was perfectly dry. (As Neo had been). He continued to sing and I could catch every nuance. The sound is throaty and rich; but faint nasal overtones can be detected at times. It began to rain and his song ceased. He now advanced to take the meat from hand, as if realizing, now, that the weather was treacherous and that he should take food while it was available. I could now observe his bare skin- patch back of his eye to advantage, at arm's length. (As I have on several hundred other occasions). I have always suspected that the colors vary in hue, shade, intensity and area to some extent, not only as between individuals of the species, but in any one individual, depending upon degree of maturity, adult age, state of the emotions, stage of the mating cycle (and annual cycle-- or time of year) and so forth. Without discussing this matter in detail, the following changes are noted in Rhody: (Compare p. 1061, Sept.16,1935) The purple at the upper rear quadrant of the eye now extends farther to the rear. (This has been noticed for a long time) The blue bands are wider, especially at the rear. The white area is more definitely triangular. The scarlet (or orange) area is now two-toned; the upper and rear portion being deeper in hue than the lower and forward portion. It is as though the latter had faded. The general impression, for some time, has been that the blue is brighter and more distinct, but that the red is duller. There were several hard showers during the afternoon, some almost torrential in intensity, and it was thought that Rhody would seek refuge in his house early; but he was not there at 1 P.M., nor at 2:40; however, Julio saw him enter his house at about 4:10. He refused meat, and was not very wet. Neo and mate, despite the weather, spent much of the time at their home area on the bank. Julio stuffed Neo with meat there and this gave N2 a chance to get worms.