1235 August 4th. to 6th., incl. During this period there was no departure of consequence from present routine either on the part of Rhody or the thrashers. The Convention of Thrashers has not yet materialized as observed in 1934 and 1934. Brownie sings full song at irregular intervals, and the same may be said for sub-song. The latter is now, at times, of long duration: an hour or more continuously. Rhody continues to favor his resting places in the cage and the same acacia. On the 6th. it looked as if he might resume his nesting work, for a few moments at least. The impulse came to him, but faded out. He had been resting quietly in the cage for an hour or more and, upon coming out, performed his ridiculous series of loops, spirals and other complex curves through the bushes to the accom- paniment of beak-rattlings and rattle-boos apropos of nothing with- in the range of my senses, then devoted himself to the collection of a large sheaf of pine-needles. This he took to the mirror for inspiration; but there, after pressing it against the glass once, it was dropped in a casual sort of way and he turned to sunning himself in the spread-eagle pose. A little later he was invited to the shop for a young rat. He picked it up without enthusiasm and dropped it twice, then turned to wander off after waiting for further developments. When I got a mouse for him--also white--and practically the same size as the rat, he came back at once and gobbled it without cere- mony. There seems to be something besides color to influence his selection. About 4:30 P.M. a visitor (H.L.E.) and I were sitting in the shade of No.5 nest-tree watching him lying on the ground about 20 feet away, also in the shade, at peace with the world. After a half hour or so he got up and approached us along a path, but suddenly dashed past us with incredible speed, looking more like a line in space than a bird, and disappeared for the rest of the day. The cause: three boys approaching the fence from the north, not at all noisily. August 7th. When offered the same rat today he swallowed it without hes- itation, alive and kicking. His throat and shoulder feathers continued to move about for several seconds. 2:30 P.M. At a shade temperature of 83 degrees, Rhody sits in the shade with lifted wings, while Brownie sings under-song in the glade. At about 7 P.M. Rhody was not in any of his known night quarters. I learned from Mrs. Scamell that he had, a few days ago, entered Mrs. O'Neill's bed-room early in the morning while that lady was still in bed. Since there is an acacia tree (Acacia melanoxylon) close to the west wall of the O'Neill house (275 yards due south of here across a small valley) and the tree would seem to offer all the requirements of a road-runner roost--including the unobstructed western outlet and the landing field with protection from the rear--I went over to investigate. It seemed probable that he might have been using the tree as a roost and discovered an open window nearby that required investigation.