ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 51 
A SAMPAN ON THE MIN RIVER 
Here the water was too shallow for the 
houseboat. 
they were—now and then voiced 
these sweeter notes chick-like 
seeps! and peeps! 
Gradually working together, 
with the laughing thrushes drift- 
ing along like scattered leaves 
or bounding with high, strong 
leaps over the low bushes and 
logs, all united in a loose flock and 
began feeding slowly downward, 
usually over a southern slope. The 
greater activity of the thrushes 
usually carried them _ several 
yards in advance before they had 
gone far, but many times I 
watched the birds at a distance 
and saw them keep together for 
a thousand feet or more of de- 
scent. In such a case I would 
locate the flock as it crossed an 
SILVER 
open space well up on the moun- 
tain, and making a detour and 
concealing myself far below in the 
line of their descent, I would be 
almost certain to intercept them 
before they reached water. The 
thrushes are almost wholly insec- 
tivorous, while the pheasants 
choose animal and vegetable food 
in equal quantities. 
Whether the relation is mutual- 
ly helpful in any way or not, it 
certainly exists. And, as I have 
said elsewhere, while the associa- 
tion may be due solely to the so- 
cial love of birds, it is certainly 
true that the laughing thrushes 
many times give the pheasants 
warning of danger visible from 
trees, which the latter on the 
PHEASANT COUNTRY 
The birds come down here through the scrubby pines to drink. 
