stuck first to the meat and then to his bill. Finally, with a quick flirt of his bill, he succeeded in sending it sailing away. It is curious that he should be so fastidious about one feather on his meat when he will swallow hundreds attached to a sparrow. Under certain conditions, such as endeavoring to light on a perch longitudinally or walking diagonally across the edge of a shelf, he seems to miss the third toe in front and makes missteps apparently due to its absence. Consequently he is subject to falls, usually checked in time. One gets the impression that the turning back of this toe is so recent an occurrence, in an evolutionary sense, that the tribe of Road-runners has not yet had time enough to readjust itself to the new arrangement; or perhaps that the two front and two back scheme was evolved to fit a mode of life that has since been abandoned, with the re- sult that it does not fit ideally into present conditions. August 25th. Amongst the thrashers the day was about as usual. Brownie, how- ever, varied his siesta periods by actually placing a few loose twigs at various points within a few inches of his night roost in the dormitory tree. On such occasions his solemn concentration on the task is comic- al, and he either pretends not to see me or else regards my presence as inconsequential in the cosmic scheme. For the last three days a young, half-grown pheasant of Dr. Reynolds’s has elected to come here and stay. The young thrashers are frankly afraid of him; the older ones merely careful. At one time there were four of these birds and the pheasant all on the small oval lawn at the same time. There was a violent disturbance among the quail this afternoon and loud outcries preceded a general exodus from a focal point. On going there the young pheasant was found, calm and passive, at the point of divergence. This was a surprise, as I had expected a hawk, and, as a matter of fact, the pheasant did not look unlike one at the first glance. August 26th. The day opened with heavy clouds and peals of thunder in the distance. This did not interfere with Brownie's musical performance, first heard at 6:30 A.M. He gradually worked off toward the south east and was heard singing loudly at the Robinsons' between 8 and 8:30. He was in the top of a deodar near the sidewalk and continued his song when