Oct. 10th. Early morning song up to about 8 A.M. Brownie started his nest one month ago, but has made little progress. I assume that the female is not prepared to lay eggs, and it is possible that she will not. This brings up the question again as to the effect of the abundance and the kind of food on the reproductive activities of these birds. Brownie and Greenie both ate freely of meal worms, soft food and the suet mixture, beginning about 2 years ago. They had an October-November brood. Greenie is now thought to have been a very young bird. Brownie still partakes of these same foods, but Nova has not had worms and soft food at all (the latter kind not now being provided for them at the feeding stations) and is rarely seen at the suet. She is thought to be an old bird--judged by eye color. If the rich food stimulated B and G to reproduce out of season and B continues to have such food (as he does) and Nova does not have it (which is substantially the fact), it might be supposed that Brownie, on this theory, would be anxious to rear a brood at about the same time this year and Nova would not. So far this seems to fit in with the picture at the moment. The nest is now behind last year's in its building. Last year the first egg was laid Oct. 13. Weather conditions have paralleled closely those of last year for the same period. About 1 P.M. Rhody, who a half hour before had crossed a road and climbed a bank to take a piece of meat from hand, was at the glade drinking. I held out to him a large dragon fly just caught in the dining room. This creature, incidentally, was trying to bite me, but could not break the skin. Rhody was interested, but decided in favor of a twig which he carried up into an old man and "chewed". By this time there was a bodygurd of 5 pigeons around me. Rhody came down