(561) when they have seen me dragging a snake by the tail. Perhaps it means worm! Jan. 15th. About 8:30 A.M. B&G were at the oval lawn. When I called B answered by scrapping (khrick). A few minutes afterwards he was peering down over the wall that supports this grass plot on the south scrapping excitedly. Cf. preceding paragraph. I went down with a gun, but could find nothing; both birds running to the glade where they and the wren joined me. B had something to say to me, but what I do not know. I forgot to record yesterday that B, after a good feed, carried two worms to his mate in the bushes and gathered soap-root fibre, only to drop it again. Jan.16th. Cat again. I was away all the afternoon until about 5:10 yesterday at which time I returned to find a black cat eating the soft-food in the glade. This animal decided to leave before I was able to get my gun and return Brownie was seen approaching the dormitory tree and, as I watched nearby, climbed to his roost for the night; I could not deflect him from his purpose by displaying worms. Talk. "Nesting" 9:30 A.M. (16th.) About 9 B&G came to me in the glade. B sat on my knee and talked with little high-pitched chirping sounds which he would not change. G was very much preoccupied with gathering nesting material, but would drop it when I held a worm out to her in order to come and get the worm. This was repeated 5 or 6 times. She did not use the same talk as her mate, but the "bluebird" call as her central motive. B was stimulated to gather fibres by G's example, but the impulse soon faded out when he located a good digging prospect at my feet. G continued gathering material and went out of the glade on the north side, B climbing up into the low clump of branches where Nest NO.1 was built. I then left.