1398 in hot pursuit, brought them to the entrance. R5 went up the inside of the east fence. R had him in the corner pulling feathers out of him by the time I got there. I intervened at once;R desisted and stood by to watch. Both birds had bills open panting; R5 partly through coarse mesh of fence. I picked him up gently; a second's struggle without outcry and he subsided, there- after, as long as I held him he made no attempt to escape. I took him to the house and put red ink on the white spots of his tail (having no bands) and cut off one of his tail feathers that had been hanging down several days, then took him back to the cage. He merely jumped from my hands to a roost 2 feet away and stayed there. Incidentally I found that he was plump. Rhody remained at the scene of his attack quietly for several minutes then sauntered off phlegmatically. Judging by his own behavior as compared with Archie and Ter- ry, and Rhody's attitude toward him and those two birds individual- ly (with only one of them present) my guess is that Pepper is a yearling male road-runner and that Rhody either knows that he is a male, or else thinks so. (In everyday language). As such, this is no place for him. As long as Rhody was about, which was until about 5 o'clock, R5 would not come down from the upper annex, but when Rhody left, he came down. On making various tests I could not see that his attitude toward me had changed. After this episode and before leaving Rhody spent his time partly at the cage standing quietly, partly at nest 3-37 and once, on invitation, he followed to the tool-house looking indifferent- ly at all my offerings, then going back to the cage. Several times when he started to leave for the night he returned to the cage. At about 4 P.M. Brownie, who had been around most of the after noon, was in his nest in the old oak calling Nova with fine, loud musical phrases and succeeded in getting her to come to him. Long after 5 he was keeping her in the vicinity of the nest by "talk- ing", even while sitting on my knee. taking worms as they were hand- ed to him one at a time. At 5:45 I went out to see how Brownie was getting on in his effort to assert his manhood as the head of the family. He was exactly where I left him half an hour or so before: about 4 feet from the ground in the sage patch near the glade, still talking. Nova was on the ground below him. After a few minutes he came to me for worms, ate several, then gathered a billful and flew back to the sage, where I could hear him making the "blue-bird" note as he searched for his mate. (6:01 P.M.) Perhaps he will have his way after all. March 3rd. At 8 A.M. Rhody was at his post on the west lot. (Temp. in Clearing 60 deg., sunny). A humming-bird was making his U-shaped dive and whistle above a bush near him. R merely looked at me when I spoke to him. It is to be noted that Rhody has not been heard to sing for several days. (Does he think he has found a mate in R5 and that it is unnecessary?) The two hummers which I have temporarily in captivity can safely be released now, I think, at any time. They appear perfect-