328 Simmons, Nesting of Texan Birds. Ltuly 



Although the day was misty and rainy the nest and eggs were quite dry 

 in the shelter of the bush, so that an arched nest would not have helped 

 matters to any considerable extent. 



After being emptied of their contents, the eggs lost their faint pinkish 

 tinge and became a dead white; the shell was smooth of texture and had 

 very little gloss. They measured: .78 X .61; .75 X .61; and .73 X .62. 



Cardinalis cardinalis cardinalis. Cardinal. 1 — Common resident, 

 but though I have found numerous nests in the thickets and moss-covered 

 trees along the bayous after the nesting season is over, my occupied nests 

 have been few. 



May 29, 1910, I found my first nest. It was placed in a blackberry 

 thicket on a farm about four miles west of the city, and contained two eggs. 

 April 29, 1911, nest No. 2 was found in the open woods on Buffalo Bayou 

 about eight miles west of the city. It was placed on the horizontal limb 

 of an oak sapling, twelve feet from the ground, and was composed of twigs, 

 corn husks and gray Spanish moss; inside, it measured one and three- 

 quarter inches deep and 'three inches in diameter. It contained four 

 slightly incubated eggs. 



Nest No. 3 was discovered in a patch of cut-over woods on the north 

 side of the bayou about nine miles west of the city; it was placed in a 

 post-oak sapling five feet from the ground, and was composed of moss, 

 plant fibre, corn husks, and pieces of newspaper. The lining was of smaller 

 strips of corn husks and plant fibre. The three eggs which the nest con- 

 tained were advanced in incubation. Date, May 6, 1911. 



Nest No. 4 was six feet from the ground in a small oak sapling in a 

 clearing of the Buffalo Bayou woods about six miles west of Houston, and 

 on April 20, 1912, contained three eggs. It was composed of Spanish moss, 

 pieces of broom weed, and dead leaves, and was lined with dry grasses. 

 Nest No. 5 turned up on May 11, 1912, and contained three eggs. It was 

 in a pear orchard on the farm where nest No. 1 was found, and was placed 

 six feet from the ground on the tip of a limb. It was composed of Spanish 

 moss, and lined with firmly-woven strips of corn husks about a quarter of 

 an inch wide. 



Nest No. 6 was an unusually small, neat structure, and when found on 

 July 21, 1912, contained four newly hatched young. It was in a small oak 

 on the edge of the orchard where No. 5 was found, and I feel sure belonged 

 to the same pair of birds. The nest was composed of the usual corn husks 

 and grasses, but contained no moss; it was firmly woven, and placed in a 

 fork twelve feet from the ground; inside, it measured two and a half inches 

 across by one and three-quarter inches deep. 



Probably the most interesting nest of the lot was No. 7. I did not 

 discover it until August 17 (1912), evidently some time after it had been 



1 These birds belong in all probability to the form which Bangs has described as 

 C. c. magnirostris from Louisiana, cf. Proc. N. E. Zool. Club, IV, p. 5. March, 

 1903. 



