629 Speculation on B's punishment of youngster. The more my mind returns to Brownie's punishment of Cross-patch this morning, the more inexplicable the incident becomes. Instead of going after me, the aggressor, and defending his offspring who was certainly being badly treated by me, he became, in appearance at least, an ally; turned against his own flesh and blood, and mauled him terrifically, all but driving him from the place, being checked only by my intervention. The first impulse is to regard the act as punishment administered on account of the youngster's ill behavior under stress and an attempt to check an objectionable tendency in its inception. This is too anthropomorphic, even for me to accept. Again, Brownie was much excited, other birds were gathering as a result of the din; perhaps he did not recognise his own child, at the moment, had to have some outlet for his feelings, felt that he had to fight something and this squalling thing, in the glade from which he had just been chasing undesireables, was something that had to be eliminated if peace was ever to reign again, so without reasoning, he acted. Or, as some birds are reputed to do, he joined in attacking another creature already (as seen by him) being attacked. This is as far as I go. It is a new "pattern" to me. 9 P.M. (Temp. 56; it might be a worse night for the first night out of the nest. Max. during the day: 78) April 4th. Much full song by Brownie. Much singing by Brownie during the early morning hours. About 7 A.M. both of the young birds were located by watching B take worms to them. They were about 100 feet apart, and, I think, each still in his night roost. Each accepted food readily from the squirt gun without moving from his perch; Cross-patch making only one faint snarl, then yielding to the inevitable with good grace. At 9:15 I made notes on a board of B's song at the time, omitting