WwW 
fo) 
down. Asit begun to crack and sway, several 
wood rats scrambled out of it groundward, and 
asit fell there was a shower of jingling  silver- 
ware. 
Every article that had disippeared from the 
boarding shanty was found in the nest and in 
addition jackknives, silver teaspoons and other 
articles of personal property for which the 
owner could not be found. These rodents wiil 
tote to their nest potatoes, clothes, nuts and 
any imaginable object that they can lug, but 
why nature implanted in them this instinct of 
accumulation, which, in many of its manifes- 
tations, is so foolish and a wanton waste of 
energy that might be used by the rat either in 
drumming with his tail or in refreshing sleep 
in a warm nest, is a subject for the study of 
naturalists. 
NOTES BY THE WAY. 
In East Texas you may hear the loud and 
coarse calls of the common crow quite often, 
but to find its nest is another thing; while in 
Central Texas it is an easy matter to find their 
nest along the small streams, that are skirted 
with timber, at least this has been my ex- 
perience. 
The reason is very simple to my mind. East 
Texas is heavily timbered, with many creeks 
and heavy wooded bottom lands, in which the 
crows seek a nesting place, thus rendering a 
“find” many times extremely hard; while on the 
other hand Central Texas is a prairie country 
with only smail timber along the streams and 
the crows congregrate along these wooded 
streams to find nesting sites and also to gather 
pecans that are growing along these streams in 
abundance all of which enables one to locate 
their nest with more ease, than in East Texas. 
On April 9th 1894 [ found a nest of the crows 
in the ‘flats’ in N. W. Bowie Co. 
The ‘flats’ commence within two or three 
miles of the line of Red River Co- and run east 
through Bowie Co: parallel with Red River, 
and are heavily timbered with Pin Oak ard 
Pine—the Pines toweling many feet high: 
THE OREGON NATURALIST. 
During the rainy season it is almost im- 
possible to get into the ‘‘flats’ on account of 
the water. 
Numbers of deer and turkey abound in these 
“fats”. Hearing the crow making its call in 
the ‘flats’ I started on a hunt for a nest and 
wading water for nearly half a mile, I espied a 
nest situated on a horizontal limb of a Pin Oak 
about 30 ft. from the ground and as _the;‘noise 
of the c.ows seemed to he nearing, I halted, 
and in a few seconds two crows alighte1 in the 
tree and after a moments reconnoitring} they 
‘spied me nearly beneath the tree and then 
they set up a loud noisy scolding, and the fe- 
maie circled around the tree and would not 
leave, sol decided the nest contained eggs, 
Obtaining an ax I cut a small sapling and 
leaning it against the tree, was soon up to the 
nest which contained four eggs, in one of the 
finest nests I ever saw made by the crow. The 
Nest was nearly 6 inches deep lined with horse, 
cow and opossum hair with a piece of old rag in 
the bottom. Three of the eggs had very dark 
green ground, and the other light 
One egg was far advanced in incubation, and 
the,other three were ‘‘addled” 
The Blue Grosbeak is a bird that has an ir- 
regular distribution as it can be found in some 
localities in abundance while in others at close 
proximity they are conspicuously absent. 
This year I looked close for them in Bowie 
Co. but did not see a single bird. 
Returning to Hopkins Co. May 28th. I 
found shem plentiful and nesting time just in 
its height. I find the Cow bird intrudes on 
this bird more than any other, to my knowl- 
edge and observaion, and almost invaribly the 
Blue Grosbeak abandon her nest as soon as the 
Cow Bird visits it. 
Four nests were found within a few yards of 
my home and three of them contained,a Cow 
birds egg. 
All of the nests were placed in low bushes a- 
bout 2 ft. from the ground made of weeds, 
grass and cotton each one having its snake 
shed. 
W.S.CRUZAN. 
ground. 
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