R5 "loosening up". At 1 P.M. I went into the cage with a live white mouse. R5, as yesterday, move to a place where he could see me. The mouse was then placed on a horizontal scantling forming a part of the framework of the cage, about 3 feet below the bird. He was interested at once and showed no great fear of my approaching him so closely. I backed to 6 feet from the bird. He came down to get the mouse, cocking head and tail, colors displayed. He was not quite bold enough to take it so near me and retreated. I kept still and, in a few moments, he came down again, took the mouse, killed it and swallowed it without running off with it, then moved without haste to a little higher perch where he could still see me. I left without his being disturbed. At 1:10 Rhody not to be seen from this side of the fence. Nor was he in his roost tree. I returned by a roundabout course to the Clearing. I reached the place where I have been feeding him, during this period, about 10 seconds before he flew over the fence and ran to me. I showed him meat first. At first he would not take it, but waited patiently, and I think, hopefully to see what else I had. (I had a mouse, but it was concealed from him). At last he took it and gulped it down where he stood, but still waited. So the mouse was produced and quickly went the way of the meat. Rhody was perfectly dry in appearance. It was not raining, but I attribute his dryness to the use of the house. At 2:45, sun trying to break through, Rhody was sitting quietly in tree 9. R5- a great mouse eater - again eats mouse in my presence . At 3:30 I repeated the 1 P.M. experiment with R5, standing the same distance away. This time he needed no second trial. He killed it by squeezing it and was so anxious to get it down that he started swallowing it crosswise. This did not work well in spite of tremendous efforts that shook the perch. He looked for a place to lay it down and start all over, but as he was in the middle of a long slender perch, found none; so he persisted in his attempt until, finally the head slipped in and thereafter it was amooth sailing. R5 is about the "mouse-eatingest" road-runner of my acquaintance. I then went down to see if Rhody had chosen the house for his night roost, but he had not and was in his regular place. During a period of sunshine R5 was sunning himself in the open style appropriate to the temperature conditions prevailing at the time. I should have recorded it before, but Rhody's new tail feathers seem to be of about normal length now. December 31st. (Sunrise 7:25, sunset 5:00. Time of sunrise remaining approximately fixed, sunset about 1 minute later each succeeding day). 10 A.M. (Bright and sunny, 42 in court, 48 in Clearing.) Rhody not up; R5 already eaten his first live mouse of the day. At 1 P.M. I held up a live mouse for R5's delectation. He came part way down to have a look. I placed it about 5 feet from my face. He took it with little hesitation, but dropped if accidentally and would not come lower for it. It was replaced. He came down quickly and got it, eating it without moving away. As it was sunny at that point he could not resist staying there and sunning