1081 A and T not disturbed by hammering. It is very noisy operation, yet Archie and Terry, instead of being frightened by the hammering and walking over their heads, do not mind it in the least; in fact they frequently get as near to the work as possible and watch curiously. Sometimes this is not over two feet from where a nail is being driven. B's song increasing again. Brownie is now apparently beginning a new song cycle. (Though only time will determine). Others noted the decline in thrasher song in this general vicinity coincidentally with B's lessened singing activity. Thus it seems to be common to thrashers in this neighborhood. (The days have been warm and sunny). Archie's gorman-dizing feat. At about 3:30 P.M. Julio brought lizards and water-dogs (newts for the road-runners. Archie first ate an alligator lizard about 12 inches long, having a hard time to kill it and, contrary to his usual habit, took no chances on its escaping. Terry was given a salamander (newt)--one of the heavy, thick-set type, but he preferred to gobble the fragments of the lizard's tail as they broke off under Archie's ministration. T abandoned the salamander (about 6 inches long) and Archie, much to my surprise, took it in "hand" and swallowed it neatly. A small lizard (about 5 inches long over-all) was also abandoned by Terry, so Archie added this to his bag, "A" next follow-up by eating a centipede and when he saw Terry sitting on my knee eating meal worms, decided that he wanted some too and took T's place. After this he tackled a small salamander that Terry would not eat (about 4 inches long). After worrying it about he made two attempts to swallow it, but had to give up. This was all accomplished in less than a half hour. Archie has never been so greedy before and there was plenty of meat in the cage at the time. Bed-time doings. The old sleeping places are still taboo; the birds will not enter them at all. Archie takes the hanging nest and Terry tries every other possible location until darkness forces him to make up his mind. Tonight I limited his choice by closing the door to the outside cage and he eventually settled in the place that he had been occupying regularly since Archie ejected him from his preferred location. It is strange that during all this hopping in and out of prospective sleeping places he did not once consider either of the beds which were so long favored, shown in sketch on p. 1042. He must have gone in and out of various places at least thirty or forty times. It would be interesting to know whether the avoidance of these quarters is a result of the cat-disturbance of the other night or whether it is based on the friction which has arisen between the two birds over them. Soft feet of road-runners. Whenever these birds clasp a finger with their feet I always wonder at the extreme softness of the pads under their toes. Others have commented upon this without my having called it to their attention. One would expect such noted runners to have calloused feet at least, but such is not the case. Indirect confirmation of this softness is evidenced by the rather frequent inspection which they make of their feet. The sharp leaves of the acacia armata (Kangaroo thorn) get into the cage and bother them, so I had one of these trees that was next to the cage in a windbreak, cut down today. Hummingbird roost The humming-bird was not on his roost tonight. It looks as if the previous occupancy was merely temporary. October 31st.