1579 It may have been the threat of hawks that kept Neo home all day, instead of out on his frontier exchanging song with that other thrasher to the north east. 1938 January 1st., 1938. (Sunrise 7:25, sunset 5:01). At about 8 A.M. (Julio) Rhody was still in his roost; but at 8:45, I found he had shifted to the house. (Cloudy, calm, 46°). Thus far, his morning shift to the house seems to have been for the sake of warmth and has occurred on mornings when the sun has not been strong enough to furnish enough warmth in the open. There was early thrasher song, but Neo was not seen all day. At 9:45 Rhody was still in the house, but at 11:15, as I returned from a short absence, he was just accepting Julio's invi- tation to come to the tool-house for a mouse. This job finished, he retired to the bank by the orchard and stayed there for 4½ hours on dend, and did not reach his final roosting place in the eucalyptus until precisely 5:01 (curiously the exact time of the "official" sun- set for the day. Hawks had been here in the forenoon and one sail- ed along the orchard path as Rhody was working his way up through the ladder tree, not more than 30 feet from him. This caused the road-runner to observe special precautions before making his last leap. Altogether he took over an hour to reach his roost from the bank: a distance (counting climb) of perhaps not more than 50 feet. Besides the mouse, he ate one salamander about 3:45--a creature that he does not care much for, as it is slimy and tough. It looked like rain, and the forecast was for rain during the night, so his selection of roosting place was perhaps a mistake. Jan. 2nd. (Sunrise 7:25, sunset 5:02). Well, it did rain during the night and Rhody was found in his house at 7:30 A.M. by Julio. It is not known when he made the shift. There was much thrasher song in the early morning, wander- ing from place to place. Neo was the suspected author. Finally it seemed to stay at one place off to the north-west. At 10 A.M., as it still continued, I went out to investigate. The Thrashers' Echo-Tree. A thrasher was singing from the top of a stunted Scotch pine growing amongst baccharis on the slope 40 or 50 yards from the N.W. corner of this property. Echos were coming from all direc- tions. This is the same isolated tree that Brownie used often as a singing post and I have always thought (as these notes show) that echos of his own song, coming from so many directions, excited him and "stimulated him into competitive song with non-existent territorial competitors. The present singer was thought to be Neo. At first so intent was he upon his song, he would pay no attention to my calls and worm-gestures, but in a few minutes he dropped down and ran up through the brush for his worms. It was, of course, Neo. His bill was caked with mud. (Like other thrashers, he seemed indifferent to such untidiness). When I stopped giving him worms he went back to the tree and resumed song. During all this time I was unable to detect the presence of any other thrasher, near or far, even when Neo was silent, which was not often. When he sang "thrashers" were everywhere, as he also doubtless thought.