(2) This was used to house surveying and drawing instruments and various tools; also as shelter in planning the general layout while studying the direction and intensity of winds, etc., views to be conserved, position of the sun at various seasons and so forth. Late one afternoon at the beginning of winter a scratching was heard (about the eaves of the shack. Investigation showed that it was a Vigors (wren looking for shelter. A house was made as quickly as possible and (put up under the eaves and every night thereafter until nesting time at (least one wren occupied the house, only to be dispossessed by the plain (titmouse in Spring. Every Spring since then this bird has reared a (family in this house although it had to be transferred to a tree when (the shack was torn down. This bird house is now the oldest occupied house (of any kind in this section of Piedmont. The titmice were occupying it (when it was moved (about 10 feet) and for about a day they could not find (it, frequently hovering in the air at the vacant space where it had been. While working in the shack one day I heard a low, continuous warbling near the door, and looking out saw a thrasher (California Thrasher, Toxostoma redivivum--responsible for these notes being kept) digging in the rocky ground about 10 feet away. As soon as it saw me it ran off about 10 feet further and I tossed it a piece of bread from my lunch and, much to my astonishment, it came running back to get it. This was the first time I had any inkling that the thrasher, despite its habit of skulking about the bushes and its reputed shyness might not be so fearful of human beings as is generally supposed. Also it was the first intimation that this oak-clad spur might be thrasher territory, although I had occasionally heard them singing in the thickly wooded can- yon below. This was the first thrasher I had seen here and it will be noted that it accepted food the first time it was offered. In building the house the wild growth has been spared as much as possible and consideration was given from the first to the welfare of the feathered inhabitants and visitors by providing food and water and preserving cover. It is believed that the local bird population is now far in excess of what it was when I came on the scene. During the next few months building operations on the property with steam shovels, trucks, grading, blasting, poison oak grubbing in the thickets, doctoring trees, hammering, sawing and burning rubbish made the place unattractive to birds. In addition also they commenced laying out and grading streets in the surrounding property with all the noise making appliances peculiar to such operations. Blasts were set off that threw rocks more than 100 yards away as far as this place. (Poor shooting). Immense piles of brush were burned. The police came into the newly opened territory to practice pistol shooting; small boys came with air-guns and traps; motorists invaded the woods to loot the wild growth; other houses were being built; salesmen with "prospects" prowled everywhere and for months there was no semblance of peace in any direction. Bird life, except for gulls and jays, coming to eat the remnants of workmen's lunches was scarce, although a thrasher would occasionally perch on the point of a roof and sing a few notes. I kept "scratch feed" out for the quail and got some extraordinary combinations feeding together all at the same time, such as quail, junco, jack-rabbit, brown towhee, cotton-tail rabbit and Nuttall sparrow. In the spring of 1927 an adult thrasher and a youngster, apparently full grown, discovered the scratch feed and the adult started feeding the young bird with grains of wheat and cracked corn. The adult would pick up a kernel, go to the youngster, make a deep bow which was politely re- turned and thrust it down the throat of his offspring. This was repeated many times in exactly the same way, the youngster continually edging away until it was 50 feet or more from the source of supply, thus necessitat-