rather dark in there and I could not be certain that it was empty. Neo now dropped the worms into the nest, but soon picked them out again one at a time and ate them. He now began probing inside it with his bill, but picked up nothing, so, although I could not see for certain, it seemed probable that there were no Argentine ants there, at least in considerable numbers. Neo seemed unable to realize that the nest was empty and got into it as if incubating. In a few seconds he was out and I forced a clear space through the honeysuckle so that I could get a good view of the interior of the nest at arm's length. It was empty. Neo came back and sat on the edge of the nest close to my hand, showing no fear, and gazed down into the nest as if unable to comprehend the new order of things. He then entered the nest and was sitting in it when I left to make this note. 12:20. I went to see that the thrashers at about 12 M. N2 was scrapping in the bushes; Neo was in an oak sitting quietly as if overcome by the turn of events. I held worms up to him, but he merely cocked and eye down at them and resumed his thoughtful pose. I now went to the place at the sage patch where he has been most ready to take worms from hand, in order to see if that would change his attitude. He came quickly, ate worms hesitatingly, seeming uncertain what to do when he had had enough for himself. However he gathered a billful and, as anticipated, took them to the nest, offered them there with cluckings, dropping them in as before, following up by eating them all! As yet he has apparently been unable to adjust his actions to the new situation. So far he has not been seen to pay any attention to the brood. Certainly he must know where each is, although they are anything but noisy. One of them is in plain sight in the honeysuckle not over ten feet from where Neo got the worms from me and 15 feet from the nest. From the beginning I have suspected that Neo is a yearling--for many reasons. He has always seemed unsophisticated. I am now inclined to the belief that he is now having his first experience in rearing a family. N80, on the other hand, I have considered as a veteran (Perhaps Nova) and she has been attending the chicks since they left the nest assiduously. 3:12 P.M. Since the foregoing note I have visited the nest area frequently, not seeing Neo until 2:58, when he came for worms. I had heard him making inarticulate sounds from the sage patch, but he would not come out. N2 had been doing all the work. At 2:58 he took the worms and went to the nest again, repeating precisely his former actions, although the youngsters (at least two of them) were close by in the honeysuckle. He did not seem able to understand what had become of his children. At 3 P.M. he came to me for more and again headed for the nest, but did not go there. He came back through the hole, returned, and so forth two or three times. At last he began to walk along the fence looking up into the vines and located a chick, which he then fed--the first instance observed since they left the nest. In the meantime, about 2 P.M., Rhody was seen running down the street with nesting material. I followed him to Tree 8 (See map page 1313 A). He placed the twig in his old nest there, which he has never forgotten and never completed. He had already enlarged it to twice its former diameter and, for the next half hour, worked on it rapidly and was still at it when I left. I stood inside the canopy of the tree (which reaches to the ground so that it is like a green tent inside) and he gathered twigs both from the ground and from the tree itself passing about 4 feet from my face each trip and