personality has prevailed and we are off to a new start. May 29th. No early morning song heard, and none up to about noon, although I was absent for a couple of hours. Does this mean no egg laid? On my return the road-runner was near the Magpie cage, soon gliding into the bushes. I tried to find him with a view to tossing him some meat to test his tameness (or wildness) and preferences for food, but could not; so went into the glade and sat down, forgetting all about him. About 11:30 there was a startling sort of hoot combined with a rattling sound from a point directly behind me. On turning my head the road-runner was seen to be the author, sitting in a branch of the tree about 8 feet from my head. He moved about looking at me, not apparently disturbed, approaching to within about 6 feet at the closest and continuing to utter his combined hoot-and-rattle at short inter- vals. It was easy to see that the rattle is, as surmised by Hoffmann, made by striking the upper and lower mandibles together rapidly, but I had not previously heard that it was combined with a vocal sound, as it is, in this individual at least. The hooh, or hrooh (it is imposs- ible to describe accurately) seems to start first by a small fraction of a second, then the rattle begins while the hooh continues, and finally the rattle alone is heard. During this time he raised and lowered his crest and tail rhythmi- cally. I remembered that I had meat with me, and tossed some on the ground. He watched it fall and seemed about to go after it, but went away instead, only to return in a minute or two, sneak up on to the meat (about 10 feet from me) grab a piece and run off. I waited a few minutes for him to return, then left. About 5 minutes later he was again in the glade, sunning himself on the ladder leading to Thrasher nest No. 6, with crest not in evidence. May 30th. Considerable early morning song.