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 Mar., i9o6 I SUiIBIER NOTES FROl! A SANTA BARBARA GARDEN 47 long in such close proximity to man. I tried to get a photograph of one standing on tiptoes and stretching his neck to reach up for a drop, but the sun did not strike the spot until its rays were too weak to get anything satisfactory and all my attempts were failures. Yet bright as these wren-tits seemed in some ways they showed a good deal of stupidity, in common with several other species, iri another way. The Indian mortar shown in the cut of my first attempt at photographing birds (THE CONDOR, Vol. VII, No. 6, p. i79 ) ws much resorted to by many birds; but as the summer waned and the sun southed it was too much in the shade for the use of the cam- era, except tot a very little while in the afternoon when perhaps a mockingbird (2kZimus polyglotlos letcopterus) might happen along in a thirsty mood at the proper moment when the sun struck it, most of the others coming too early or too late for the sunshine. I conceived the idea of putting another mortar, this one being too heavy to move, a short distance away but in the sun for some hours at a stretch--- WEEN-TITS GETTING READY TO BATHE and leading the vater to it. This new mortar was placed about four feet away from, but in plain sight of the old one, and yet the customary visitors could not become accustomed to the change for a long while. They would come to the old place, jump into the bowl tho not a drop of water was in it, jump out again, stand on the edge and appear perplexed only to repeat the xvhole performance over and over again; and yet they would not go to the new place but four feet off where the water xvas dripping musically all day long. Some individuals would hop down into the old mortar and go thru the motions of taking a bath, actually raising dust from the dry sediment as they fluttered their wings, and did not have sense enough to know better, apparently. At first this holding aloof from the new watering place struck me as being perhaps due to fear of it, but this was not really the case as there was nothing there to cause such a feeling, and the only conclu- sion possible was that it was either dense stupidity on the part ot the birds or else utter inability to believe that such a change in conditions could have taken place. The wren-tits were the first to get accustomed to the new state of affairs, but