24 soon the cries of chicks being fed were heard in many places. after this until about 1230 activity tapered off, and about 1400 a new peak of feeding activity was noted. After this many adults disappeared from the air and were apparently resting with their chicks for the rest of the day. Little tropicbird activity occurs after 1930 hours. I noted an adult tropic bird feeding its chick and the adult placed his bill with the food inside of the chicks gullet and slowly regurgitated semidigested food all the while the chick was calling incessantly. When the adult ceased to feed the chick, the chick continued begging, and call- ing more loudly. The chick was fully feathered. 10-23-63 Up early again to help Bill in his rat study and was busy weighing animals until 1215, and later before dinner helped him ba- bait the traps. In the interim and when not occupied with the weighing I took mental notes on the birds and spent two hours up in the radar tower. I noted today that Tropicbird chicks were being fed as early as 0800 in the rat study area. This is the earliest I have yet seen, and other than a few birds flying the main amount of Tropicbird activity did not begin until close to 1000 this AM. After that it was sporadic for the rest of the day. From the radar tower I noted Tropic- bird chicks beginning to exercise their wings. They clambor- ed out of their scaveola thickets into the open, and adults ( Often as many as six ) would fly and back-pedel in the air over the chick calling. The chick answered several times and flapped excitedly, but the several I watched failed to get airborne. However, yesterday Chief Reeves saw one take off and fly for apparently the first time. Nearly all of the tropic- bird chicks here are about ready to go, and I expect that within the next month all will be fledged. I was impressed today by the vast amount of time that roosting Frigates and Red-footed Boobys spend in preening. One frigate that I watched from the tower today spent 27 of 35 minutes at preening today, and with the 25x spotting scope I could see the hippoboscid ectoparasites flying about the bird as he preened, and reentering the plumage as soon as he stopped. The Red-foots spent a lot of time "grubbing" in their feathers for (apparently) mallophagans. They were not en- gaged in resuffling the plumage, or moving the feathers to make the barbs of the feathers repair damages received, but rather were probing deep to the skin the way a flea-bitten dog does: Some of the Red-foots and Frigates give one that exact impression. Over the last few days I have taken care to note the numbers of shore birds which are here. There have been increases in the numbers of both plovers and turnstones