Rhody, during the past few days, has begun to defer his retirement for the night, roughly corresponding to the increased length of the day. Brownie is finding difficulty in keeping Nova here, and as a result, has to make extended excursions down into the canyon on the west and the ridge to the east. Other thrashers are being heard in the distance occasionally. Brownie's full song is still fragmentary and more in the nature of a succession of calls with little variety. When Nova is near, though out of sight, he maintains contact with a running series of gurgles and other inarticulate sounds. 5:50 P.M. Well, I let myself in for it by putting on the roof covers, as I have just discovered. Both Archie and Terry went to their regular sleeping places before dark, having perhaps overcome the residual fear of them from the last night-terror. However, when I rolled down the covers out they popped and they were unable (or unwilling, or afraid) to make the last jump that would put them safely in their bunks, owing to the resulting darkness. Consequently I had to put them to bed like little children. The magpies in the adjoining cage are not so night-blind. January 31st. This business of covering the cage requires finesse. If covered before the birds have gone to rest, they can not find their beds; if covered too soon after they have gone to bed, out they come, as I have once more discovered tonight. In either case I am compelled to act as night-roost for the pair of them, or else put them to bed. By partially removing the cover immediately over Archie, I found that he got enough light to enable him to handle the situation properly; but this did not work with Terry and I had to pick him up bodily and stow him away on his shelf. The next step was to lower the curtains very slowly, and this worked. Terry is so night-blind that he would not risk stepping from my hands 3 inches horizontally to his shelf. I had to put his feet on it. What easy victims these birds would be for a large owl if roosting outside in a tree! The decurved tip on T's bill has been getting very long-- longer, in fact, than Rhody's. I wondered what Nature would do about it. Today it was noticed that, since some time yesterday, it has been shortened so that it barely projects below the lower mandible and is now like Archie's. Based upon but one observation, it would appear that Terry does not depend upon sight solely to recognise the approach of a friend. When I went to the cage this morning he was still abed, and although I could not see him, and am reasonably certain that he could not see me because of the curtains, he began to me when I was still about 30 feet away. When I went inside he hung his head down over the edge of the shelf and continued to make this sound but appeared to want nothing unless it was companionship. Very often one of the young road-runners will suddenly stare fixedly at the ground for a few moments, then run as much as three or four feet and begin digging with his bill. Usually at a depth of an inch or two he finds something, picks it out and