318 Simmons, Nesting of Texan Birds. [$$y 



Little time could be spared during the breeding season to search 

 for nests and eggs; hence the notes are by no means as complete 

 as might be desired. Excessive rains often made it impracticable 

 to go afield during that period, for so level is the country that for 

 weeks after a rain water stands in the woodlands and on the prairies. 

 Though over 50 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, Houston's altitude 

 is but 53 feet. 



With few exceptions, the notes were all taken on short afternoon 

 walks within a few miles of the city. But as there are few nesting 

 records for the eastern half of Texas, an expanse of territory com- 

 prising over one twenty-fifth of the United States, I feel that I am 

 justified in publishing the more interesting of these notes in order 

 to settle the question of the breeding of certain species in that 

 region. 



Anas fulvigula maculosa. Mottled Duck. — On April 17, 1911, 

 Captain Patrick Daly of the Houston Fire Department, while out hunting 

 plover on the coastal prairie about a mile southeast of Pierce Junction, and 

 driving about in a small wagon among a number of small prairie ponds, 

 frequently mentioned in the following notes, flushed a female of this species 

 from a nest containing eleven eggs. As is the case with all ponds in this 

 section of prairie, the whole with the exception of a small spot near the 

 center was thickly covered with tall grass, rushes, water plants of various 

 sorts, and sprinkled with a few bushes or reeds, locally known as ' coffee 

 bean ' or 'senna.' 



The nest itself was placed about eight inches up in thick marsh grass and 

 rushes, over water four inches deep, and was neatly hidden by the tops of 

 the grasses and rushes being drawn together over the nest. It was but 

 two or three inches thick, a slightly concave saucer of dead, buffy rushes 

 and marsh grass, supported by the thick grasses and by two small ' coffee 

 bean ' reeds. The lining was of smaller sections and fragments of the 

 rushes and marsh grass, and a small quantity of cotton; and the eleven eggs 

 were well, though not thickly surrounded by down and soft feathers, 

 evidently from the breast of the parent. 



From its resting place in the tall marsh grass in the neck of the prairie 

 pond, Captain Daly transferred the nest and all the eggs to his wagon, and 

 after covering them with a sack drove for three or four hours over the 

 uneven ground. In the afternoon he drove back to the city, leaving the 

 eggs at a farm house about four miles from the ponds. They were then 

 placed under a setting hen and ten young hatched. 



Then came the problem of feeding them. At first they were placed 

 in a pen where they could have both sunlight and shade, a pan of water 



