ing, but perfectly willing to postpone her exercises in view of the worms offered with which to top off her meal of soft food. Greenie and Snooty were in the glade. Greenie was very hungry and, between trips carrying worms to his offspring, ate soft-food himself. It is singular how these birds discriminate between food for themselves and food for the young. Thus, as on the present occa- sion, even though hungry, a parent will practically never eat a meal- worm itself as long as there are young to be fed. Brownie is eating them whenever they are offered, but she is doing no feeding at all. Greenie, when he has finished feeding Snooty, will not come for another worm except rarely. The "last worm" of this morning's feeding seems to have been one of those exceptions; but caused, apparently, by an error on Greenie's part. Often when making regular trips between my hand and the young bird being fed, Greenie will over-run the youngest entirely, often as much as 8 or 10 feet, even though he may have passed by him only a matter of inches. This happens even when the young bird has not stirred from the exact spot which it occupied when last fed but a few seconds before. I have often wondered at this phenomenon, not knowing whether to attribute it to faulty sense of location, poor eye-sight, over eagerness, protective coloration of the young bird or operation of that reflex in the chain of actions associated with the feeding of the young which impels him to carry food to more than one bird, even though there may be no other bird to be fed. Thus normally, the brood consists of three young. In this instance, two of them, as far as my own perceptions are concerned, are no longer in existence, but the impelling force which governs the acts of the parent, notwithstanding that he must know that there is only one young bird to be fed, steps in when he is off guard--so to speak--and sends him off on a fruitless errand. The "last worm" this morning was carried toward a Brown Towhee in almost the opposite direction from Snooty (illustrating another common error of the