690 BIKDS OF SOUTHWESTERN TEXAS. 



that this fact was uot always apparent. Two of the four specimens 

 taken at San Antonio liad cariously malformed bills. The lower man- 

 dible of one was split to the base, one piece of which was very short, 

 hardly one-half the normal length, while the other was very long and 

 bent sideways very abruptly. The deformity of the other was not so 

 marked. I did not see the bird at Leon Springs, IJeeville, or Corpus 

 Christi, nor is it in either of the papers of Drown or Hancock. Dresser 

 makes no mention of it at all, greatly to ujy surprise, and I do not be- 

 lieve it was there at the time he collected. 



256. Harporhyuchus longirostris (Lafu.). Loiiir-billed Thrasber. 



"On March 21 two birds were seen almost G miles west of Corpus 

 Christi, among the ebony trees. Tlieir wary habits would not allow us 

 to approach within gunshot. April S a male and female, together with 

 the nest, which contained three eggs, were taken, 2 miles west of the 

 city. The nest was built a few feet from the ground, in a chaparral 

 bush" (Hancock). I did not see the bird at all, nor is it in Dresser's list. 



Geuns SALPINCTES Cadanis. 



257. Salpiiictes obsoletus (Say). Rock Wren. 



Although I kept a sharp lookout for this Wren at Leon Springs, 

 where I exj^ected to iind it, it was not seen. Its claim to a place here 

 rests entirely upon Mr. Brown's recorded capture of a female at Boerne, 

 on March 4. Dresser makes no mention of the species. 



Genus CATHERPES Baird. 



258. Catherpes mexicanus conspersus Ridgw. Canon Wren. 



This bird was only met with at Leon Springs, Bexar County, and but 

 one individual was seen there, a male, which was taken on March 11. 

 At 5 o'clock in the morning, the day after my arrival, I was awakened 

 by one of the clearest and most attractive bird songs lever heard. As 

 it was entirely new to me, I got up to investigate, and soon discovered 

 that it proceeded from a Canon Wren, perched on the cornice of the 

 piazza. In a few minutes it completed its serenade and flew oft" to a 

 stone wall surrounding the yard, when it crept in and out of the crevices 

 after the manner of its kind. Tiie proprietor, Mr. Aue, informed me 

 that a pair of them first made their appearance at the house about three 

 years before, and the male always sang every morning at dawn from 

 the top of the chimney or the comb of the roof, for ten or twenty min- 

 utes. The song is a very bold and ringing one, rivaling in volume an<l 

 bell like clearness some of the best efforts of the Carolina Wren. I 

 did not know until after I had shot the bird that it was a sort of 

 household pet, else its life would not have been sacrificed. Brown 

 speaks of three pairs that he found in a caiion near Boerne, 10 or V2 

 miles northwest of Leon Springs. Dresser states that it is "not uncom- 

 mon near San Antonio, remaining there to breed." 



