July 11th. At 7:30 A.M. there were no young of the first brood to be seen anywhere, and the parents were not at the nest. I stepped out on a balcony at the western end of the house, ten or twelve feet above the ground and overlooking the wooded canyon below, and called. Shortly Brownie came and made several ludicrously ineffective efforts to fly up to me, but fell short each time. I tossed a couple of worms down to her, which she took to the nest. I then had breakfast, expecting her to come into the dining room on the other side of the house. She would have to travel about 150 feet to get there by the irregular route she would have to take. I was not disappointed, for she soon came into the dining room, and jumped up to the table and carried food back to the nest. Later I went to the nest and cooper- ated with her in feeding the young soft food. Still later, when the parents were off foraging, I had a look at the nestlings. They are beginning to take some interest in outside affairs, one of them in particular being quite ready to take food from the spatula when it is offered, whether his parents are there or not. I have fastened a dish of moistened soft food about a foot from the nest. The parents do not seem to touch it, yet when I pick food out of it with my fingers and offer it to them they will eat it themselves and also feed it. I can not account for this. At 7:30 P.M. as I was looking for the first brood (without success) Julio brought me a gopher snake, I would say between three and three and a half feet long. I told him to bring it to the oval lawn, as I wanted to see what the thrashers would do about it, as one of them would probably come there shortly, since one had just taken food from me there and was about due on a return trip. Brownie soon came trotting out (Mr. Will Sampson says that she is a pacer) and I took the snake by the tail allowing about half of its length on the ground. As soon