May 24th. 23 I was away from 7:30 A.M. to 10 P.M. (Corral Hollow, Lone Tree and Hospital Canyons) tryin, with Donald Brock, to locate road- runner nests, but without success. Julio tells me that Rhody brought home a small snake, but that on being offered a mouse, abandoned the snake for the mouse. May 25th. Rhody was given a mouse by Julio before I was up. The young thrashers are making interesting progress. Each was offered a worm in the palm of the hand and reached down for it with wide-open bills, as if expecting that the worm would accommo- datingly perform the rest of the operation in the manner to which they have been accustomed. Later Okil, when a worm was put on the floor of the cage in front of him, managed after a long series of trials, to pick it up several times, but could not accomplish the "double shuffle" necessary to get it down his throat. Both birds peck at objects now in a purposeful manner instead of randomly as at first. Thus they try to pick them up. When sand was put in the cage both dug in it with their bills, but not with the typical thrasher sidewise swing. They also swallowed particles of sand. Okil has learned to drink water out of a vessel. His first ef- fort was to try to bite pieces off of it and again holding his bill wide open as if expecting the water to climb down his throat. Finally, about noon, he had developed standard technique. Curious- ly, as noted with some of B's broods, the first drinking effort was accompanied by crouching and bathing movements of the wings. Chisai made tentative efforts to drink, but was not so far ad- vanced. However he distinguished himself by essaying song while Dr. Reynolds stroked his back. The cage is on a stand of a height such that, when I sit in a chair in front of it, my knee is about at the level of the bottom of the door. When the door is left open they frequently come out, jump to my knee, then begin to explore my topography instead of dashing about the room trying to escape. They examine my glasses, peck at the dots on my necktie, and if looking for a place to lie down, climb to a shoulder and cuddle against my neck. When they have had enough of this, up to the present at least, they retrace their course and reenter the cage of their own volition. At 5:30 Rhody, whom I have been neglecting the last day or two, was found on his shelf at the magpie cage. He followed promptly to the tool house and, on arrival there, rattle-boed at me in- stead of whining as usual. (In protest at my neglect, or in greeting? This was the first time he had seen me in two days). I remembered that Julio had captured a live alligator lizard and put it in the shop, so decided to offer R that instead of a mouse. He now followed to the shop. I put the lizard--a rather large one inches long--on the ground. He was not sure that he wanted to tackle it, but finally grabbed it by the back of the neck, dropped it hastily and did some fancy foot work in avoiding it. The lizard was belligerent; raised himself as high as he could on his legs and confronted Rhody with wide open mouth, standing his ground bravely. Rhody did not like that; decided not to renew contact with the enemy, walked around him and stood in front of me, crying expectantly. This meant mouse, preferred; so