Vol. XXXIII 



1915 



Simmons, Nesting of Texan Birds. 317 



ON THE NESTING OF CERTAIN BIRDS IN TEXAS. 



BY GEORGE FINLAY SIMMONS. 



Plates XXI-XXIL 



The following notes are from observations made by the writer 

 in the southern portion of Harris County, Texas, during the breed- 

 ing seasons of 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913, and 1914. 



The area under consideration is in the southeastern part of the 

 State, and lies wholly within the semitropic or Gulf strip of the 

 Austroriparian zone. Thus we find a slight intermingling of birds 

 of unquestionable tropical affinities with a preponderance of Lower 

 Austral species. 



Houston, where nearly all of the observations were made, is 

 about 50 miles northwest of Galveston, which lies on the Gulf of 

 Mexico. Buffalo Bayou runs eastward through the city 28 miles to 

 Galveston Bay; Bray's Ba} r ou skirts the city on the south and joins 

 Buffalo to the east. Each of these streams is skirted on either side 

 by heavy strips of timber, varying from a quarter to a half mile in 

 width. This timber is mostly pine, with a general sprinkling of 

 deciduous trees. Northeast and north of Buffalo Bayou the great 

 southern pine woods begin, and here on these bayous we find the 

 most southwesterly extension of such forests. 



The country between Buffalo and Bray's Bayous and south of 

 the latter is typical flat, open and almost level coastal prairie, with 

 little vegetation and few farms or ranch houses. Sprinkled about 

 this prairie are numerous grass-grown ponds and marshes. 



The majority of the records are from two sections; the first is a 

 narrow strip of country extending west from the city, about a mile 

 wide, and having Buffalo Bayou as its northern boundary; the 

 second is an expanse of prairie within a mile's radius of Pierce 

 Junction, a small flag-station 6| miles south of Houston. The 

 woodland records are from jthe first, while the prairie and marsh 

 records are from the second. All distances are in miles from the 

 flag-station at Pierce Junction and the county court house in 

 Houston. 



