branches, but not shredded or even cut up finely. Ate considerable oats, some apple. The male cut up much of his Ephedra into lengths of 1 to 2 inches, did not seem to do much to the cipres sprays, ate some apple and oats. November 14- Put the male in a wire-floored plastic cage with apple, Ephedra, cipres, and bread, overnight. He ate all the bread and apple, and cut the ephedra into 0.5-3-inch lengths but did not eat the tender buds on the ends of the branches. The cipres he cut into smaller pieces but did not shred any of it. Collected a half of a small nunc tube of urine from the floor of the cage (Sample No. 1). It was not particularly viscous, slightly pink, smelled like mouse urine, not grapes. There were 4 drops of blood on the floor of the cage, probably from his skinned tail, which has not dropped off yet. and may have caused the pink color of the urine collected. Produced 62 droppings overnight: 10pm to 8 am. The female gave birth yesterday afternoon, at least two young, some squeaking. Overnight she ate some apple but no bread, and pulled the Ephedra and cipres over her nest but does not seem to have eaten any of them. When I cleaned the male's cage and returned him to it, he wet the newspaper promptly- so fast that the urine could not have been viscous. November 15- The female came out and ate bread and apple in preference to cipres and rolled oats. No shredding of cipres in either cage. November 19- No eating of the giant ephedra (probably was Diostea). November 20- Brought home some of the small Ephedra andina from about 5 miles beyond Pilcaniheu and from the canyon of La Fragua. Mostly heavily pruned but containing lots of female buds. Put the male in the urine-collection cage with apple, bread, and Ephedra andina. In the morning I collected from the bottom of the cage two small nunc tubes of urine (almost clear, quite runny, smells mousey, = 2 ml), about 50 cut-off buds, a few lengths of Ephedra stem, and 96 droppings (a few of them quite small, about Mus size). Most of the buds had been opened and the pair of pistils or seeds removed. They are juicy and about 3.5 mm long. One that had not been removed from the dense cluster contained a grub. Some of the buds still had one or both seeds in them; perhaps they fell through the wire floor before he could open them. The female and nursing young, like the male, had apple and bread, She cut off most of the buds and ate the two seed halves. Sometimes the seeds were hollowed out as though she went for the germ (endosperm?). These were Ephedra andina. The giant ephedra brought back from beyond Comallo looks remarkably like a big Ephedra andina, but the buds have 3 seeds in them instead of two. Maybe Retamilla ephedra? Put the night's collection of droppings in a petri dish and soaked