Dec 5th. Strong wind. 9:00A.M. A powerful north wind is roaring through the pines. If there was early song, I probably could not have heard it. B in glade. B in the glade, very meek, but singing nevertheless, nervous about the wind. Only the pulsation of his throat showed (at a distance of about 10 feet) that he was singing. (Temp. in shade 53, but warm in the sun and out of the wind). All birds in the lee of buildings, banks and shrubbery. Rail in nest, One wonders whether the little rail, lying in his nest, comfortably doing in the warm sun with his belly full of worms and Hamburger steak, appreciates his good fortune. He looks as if he did. He has been banded by Mr. Cain and will be released eventually. I dreaded a painful struggle on his part; but he took the operation philosophically. Several nights ago, as he lay in his nest, we pointed flash lights at him, and Mr. Cain lifted him out of the nest gently. He struggled mildly for a few seconds, then subsided. After banding he was replaced in the nest and stayed there peacefully. Rail previously banded. Rhody eats sparrow. About 10:30 I shot a sparrow (the first English sparrow that I have even had a chance to shoot at for several months). I looked up Rhody and found him in the orchard. He spent about 10 minutes in picking off most of the wing and tail feathers and about half of the body feathers. This was a very deliberate operation, as he paused frequently, to listen, as it seemed, to the sound of the wind and the singing of an Anna humming-bird about 15 feet from him. He contemplated an advance upon the latter, but gave it up. The sparrow, with all of its feathers, looked much larger than Rhody's head, but he swallowed it in somewhat less than a minute, with one pause at the critical point to rest. For two minutes he did not leave his place, then went to a convenient point to wipe the feathers off of his bill. Listens to wind and hummer. R and mirror. 20 minutes later he came to the cage where I sat, giving the mirror only a few casual pecks each of five or six times when he passed it.