when I was not looking for them. I have arranged with Mr. Feltes to go with him to Hospital (pronounced Ospital') and/or Lone Tree Canyons tonight to see if we can pluck a playmate for Rhody out of a tree as we did Pepper. April 7th. I left here about 2 P.M. yesterday, drove about 66 miles to Hospital' to get a preliminary look at road conditions in the can- yon (finding them bad) and certain trees I know which have been used by road-runners as nest site. I wished also to find (by day- light) if there was any evidence of their spring nesting activ- ities there, as I did not wish to break up any families, in the event we might be so fortunate as to locate a roosting bird. I located 5 apparently old nests, about 4 P.M., in these particular trees and saw no road-runners. I then drove to Modesto to project my movies of the nighthawks for Mr. Feltes and convince him that they were not good enough to illustrate his Cooper Club paper on these birds. (I succeeded). After dinner we drove back to Hospital (about 25 or 30 miles). We parked in pitch darkness about 100 feet from two shaggy pepper trees, one of which I had observed earlier in the day, contained two old nests and the other one. In less than five minutes we located a roosting road-runner in the second pepper tree, duplicating almost exactly our Decem- ber experience in lone tree. He was in typical road-runner post- ure. This looked altogether too easy! But, alas! Just as Mr. Feltes hands were about to enclose him he bolted and we could not find him. Continued search up to about 11 P.M. disclosed no Rhodies. We found two more old nests and inspected the other 5 again, but no birds in them. A complete wash-out. By the time I got home I had covered 197 miles by car and (it seemed) about the same distance on foot, not including considerable additional footage involuntarily traversed in less conventional attitudes on account of steep banks, dead branches and wire entanglements. About 11:50 A.M. I found Rhody, rather to my surprise, sit- ting quietly in his roost tree. He sailed down to me, followed me along the street and to the tool house for his mouse. He did not take this one to the mirror, but, after display, to nest 3-37 and ate it. Now for a good preening and "spread-eagle" sunfit- ting. (Air temperature in shade about 64, but where we were, much higher, with decidedly warm ground). One of those days when the air is fresh and agreeably cool, but the direct sun stings through the clothing and makes woolen give off the odor that it does when being pressed with a hot iron. I said to Rhody: "When you come out of this fit, the first thing to do is to scratch your neck." Which, of course he did. This action again fits in with the tentative hypothesis advanced in these notes, that one of the purposes of the spread-eagle pose is expelivermin (assumed to be present, though never seen by me-- and further assumed to be photo- and thermo-fuge) - from the sun- ed and heated portion of the bird's anatomy to shaded an acces- sible portions like the neck, breast, sides and under wing surfaces. All of these portions received his attention, either with feet or bill on this occasion. It was observed that he plucked off a loose feather or two from his breast, and this reminds me that lately been finding more of his feathers about than usual. Without reference to back notes for confirmation (or otherwise) perhaps this indicates the beginning of his moult.