Stick to it. Thus encouraged, I continued. However it developed that he was merely supplying the key-note for his remarks for the next half hour or so, talk as this phrase furnished the burden of his XXXXXX during that period, to whomsoever addressed--even Bb. During the early morning stuffing period he did not hesitate to give this coarse food to Bb, ignoring Nb completely. This attitude toward Nb persisted throughout the day, but Nova, though I have not seen her get food from the dish for Nb, is feeding him. Since she has to wander about considerably, Nb is acquiring the same habit and seldom comes to the glade where Brownie and Bb make their headquarters now. July 10th. This morning Dr. Reynolds brought 2 sparrows for Rhody, but Rhody was so excited by the presence of two persons (and probably also not hungry) that he would not look at the one offered. He probably ate the one, finally, which I gave him yesterday. 2:20 P.M. Rhody, by coming to the wire and watching for me, showed that he was probably hungry, so I entered the cage with a spar- row, which he took with little hesitation. This time his procedure was different, as if he had learned that it is not wise to swallow the bird whole, feathers and all. He placed the bird at his feet at 1:55 approximately, and began pulling out the wing feathers by taking hold of them and shaking until they came out, or rather the bird fell off. He would take one feather at a time by the tip. The back and breast feathers he stripped off and tossed aside just as a human being would do, a pinch at a time. He did not hold the bird with his feet at all, but his manipulations were so clever, in spite of his violent shaking when removing the wing and tail feathers, that the bird was not thrown about, as the thrashers do with crickets and lizards, but fell at his feet each time. Consequently he did not have to move his feet at all. As it was pretty hot in the cage, he rested occasionally. At last, when all of the flight and tail feathers were off, the back was almost entirely bare and the breast less, the head and neck not being plucked, he essayed to swallow it by the head. But dropped it and rested. The next attempt was more successful, and, at 2:12, the last claw disappeared. At no time was any attempt made to dismember the bird--all attacks were made directly on the feathers. All of this time I was inside of the cage with the road-runner about 6 or 7 feet away, the cage being 9 feet square in plan.