(50) my hand without even looking to see if her mate would take her place. G.E. stood about 4 feet away and watched for a short time, then went dutifully to the nest and into it. B.E. kept on eating soft food, finally leaving to dig close at hand. She did not at any time even look at him or make any apparent suggestion, other than the one call while still in the nest, that it was time for him to get busy, nor did she appear to care or notice whether he went to the nest or not. It looked like deliberately throwing up the job, although I suppose that there is some sort of an understanding between them. This is the longest time I have seen the eggs uncovered; about a minute I should say. However, it was my fault and not the birds'. March 17th. At 7: At 8A.M. Green-eyes on the nest, B.E. digging. As soon as B.E. saw me she started the chirping noted yesterday, ran to me and ate soft food, then started digging near my hand, switched back to w worms, chirping between worms. Finally she ran toward the nest car- rying a worm, chirping as she ran, climbed up and gave the worm to her mate and then took his place. She was off again about 9, coming to me in apart of the garden where the thrashers seldom appear. (The quail have had a very bad fright this morning and now-- about 2 hours after the initial scare--are still scattered all about the place, under bushes, in the oaks and pines and even on top of the roof. They are just beginning to call back and forth to each other. It is estimated roughly that there about 30 here most of the time. At night they roost mostly in the oaks; in some cases within 3 or 4 feet of the windows. At 12:05 Green-eyes was on the nest, his mate in the glade. As an experiment I went up to the nest and called to see if I could bring about a change of shift. B.E. came up and took charge in less than a minute, G.E. diving out and disappearing.