Yol 'lfi : 5 XI1 ] Simmons, Netting of Texan Birds. 325 



left the tree, and during the time I was at the nest stayed a considerable 

 distance away, now and thjen uttering its short, shrill note. 



I had some difficulty in reaching the base of the tree; but to climb the 

 twenty-one feet to the cavity was the work of a moment. Removing the 

 front, I found the eggs to be two in number, nest stained and well incubated, 

 and laid on a small quantity of pithy pine chips. 



The two eggs measured: .91 X .69 and .87 X .69. 



Melanerpes erythrocephalus. Red-headed Woodpecker. — During 

 the seasons covered by this paper I located several excavations of this 

 Woodpecker, but the majority were in dead pines too large and unsteady 

 to attempt to climb. It was not until May 27, 1912, that I located a 

 cavity containing eggs. The birds had selected a dead pine on the edge 

 of a patch of timber by the side of a railroad track on the southern edge of 

 Houston, and thirty feet from the ground had chiseled a domicile. .The 

 pine was quite rotten and swayed dangerously, but the bird did not leave 

 the nest until I was within four or five feet of the cavity. Three eggs, 

 evidently fresh, formed the set. Two days later I returned with a com- 

 panion, this time bent on chopping into the cavity, but found that the eggs 

 had disappeared. 



Colaptes auratus auratus. Flicker. — This Woodpecker is quite 

 rare in Texas, and the only previous nesting record I can now recall is that 

 of J. A. Singley from Lee County. 



During June of 1911 I was encamped at Sylvan Beach, on the shores of 

 Galveston Bay, about twenty-eight miles east of Houston. On the 11th, 

 while crossing the picnic grounds, I was extremely surprised to observe one 

 of these birds. I followed it to where it lit on a sweet-gum tree near the 

 pavilion, noting that there was a hole in the stub of a branch broken off 

 close to the trunk, about twenty-five feet from the ground. 



The next day, June 12, I returned, climbed to the cavity, and removed 

 a section from the front. The cavity was only ten inches deep, but was 

 quite roomy, and contained seven slightly incubated eggs, nest stained and 

 laid on a few chips from the rotten limb in which the nest was situated. 



The set yielded the following measurements: 1.20 X .88; 1.19 X -87; 

 1.18 X .86; 1.18 X .83; 1.15 X .86; 1.14 X .80; and 1.12 X .85. 



Chordeiles virginianus chapmani. Florida Nighthawk. — Though 

 this species is a common summer resident on all the open prairies, and 

 evidently breeds commonly, I have but once found its egg. On June 4, 

 1913, about a hundred and fifty yards east of the flag-station at Pierce 

 Junction, I flushed a Nighthawk from a single egg on a bare, hard-baked 

 spot on the open prairie, several miles from the nearest timber. Return- 

 ing a few days later I found that the egg had disappeared. 



Myiarchus crinitus. Crested Flycatcher. — A not uncommon 

 summer resident in the vicinity of Houston. In May, 1911, a pair of these 

 birds occupied the joint and elbow of a stove-pipe hanging loosely by wires 

 against the side of a small house on the edge of the Buffalo Bayou woods 

 about six miles west of Houston. On the 20th I took a stepladder and 



