Broken-bill. This bird seems to be making his headquarters in the shrub- bery around the oval lawn. July 21st. At 8:15 A.M., who had had a mouse at 7:45, was sunning his back near the cage, but, on seeing me, went up to look at his nest in the glass house. He came down soon to fuss with twigs, at last taking some to the nest. An hour later he was gathering twigs for his new one in the acacia tree. I broke up some that were too large for him, which he accepted, but took toward No. 4-38 instead of to the new one. In passing the cage, the magpies attracted him; he dropped the twig, got in for a few seconds then came running back toward me, stepping over the abandoned twig to get another one close to me. This he took up to the new site in the acacia, and when I left about 9:45, he was working there steadily. This, therefore, seems to be a seri- ous effort and will be assigned tentatively the code number 5-38. Rhody's No. 5-35? R works diligent- ly on his new nest. 10:15 A.M. Rhody is giving all his attention to 5-36 and is working industriously. He seems to have some conception of the type of twig needed at each stage of the work, for he does not pick them up at random; he may examine a half dozen or more before select- ing one finally. In general he is not using any but those having many forks--at present--but in size they cover a wide range from say 6 inches maximum overall dimension to 2 feet. It is necessary at this stage to have twigs of many forks, so that they will have a strong tendency to catch on the branches of the tree and remain in place of their own accord, for the place selected upon which to build the nest has but few branches. While he depends to a considerable extent upon chance to secure lodgement of the first few twigs in stable position, there is much adjustment of them with the bill after they are placed and this adjustment seems to be the result of the "study" that he constantly makes of the structure and its im- mediate surroundings. During all this activity his demeanor is that of one happy in his occupation, light-hearted and intensely interested. 10:45. Still busy. His platform is now stable enough so that he can stand on it without having to be too careful about securing his footing. His favorite weed, the everlasting, even at this early preliminary stage, is tempting and he frequently looks at it, pulls it and, a few moments ago, finding a loose, leafy stalk, carried it up and crammed it down into the platform. Curiously, for some obscure reason, he has not cried--as is his custom when build- ing a nest--when I stand near and talk to him. He knocks off work. At 11:05 he suddenly quit and sailed down toward the glade. Here he had a drink. Then followed a leisurely tour through the orchard, up to the oval lawn, then to the roof of the living room, being scolded en route by the two kinds of towhees, wrentits, a gold- finch, song sparrows and starting an unseen thrasher scrapping. From the west point of the roof he seemed to enjoy the view over hundreds of square miles of bay, city and country spread out below, not neglecting preening in the meantime. Next he was found in the magpie cage and, by 11:35, was looking for more twigs at the base of the new nest-tree. However, on finding a suitable one, he took it, not to 5-38 but to 4-38 in the glass house! Truly, as Coues says, a singular bird! Resumes, but on nest 4-38! July 22nd. By 9 A.M. it was seen that Rhody had already added consider- ably to his new nest 5-38. He was away, evidently gathering material at the time, but soon returned with a large twig. He continued to work industriously until long after 12 o'clock, not stopping for