330 Simmons, Nesting of Texan Birds. [july 



in a small bush and well hidden. It was a compact structure, composed of 

 grasses, weed stems, fragments of the dry marsh grass, and a few dead 

 leaves, and was lined with finer dry grasses. 



The four eggs which it contained measured: .88 X .64; .84 X .66; 

 .83 X .65; and .80 X .61. The first specimen is quite pointed at the 

 smaller end, while the last three are quite equally rounded at either end. 



Piranga rubra rubra. Summer Tanager. — Though a fairly common 

 summer resident in the vicinity of Houston, particularly in deciduous 

 woods, I have been able to locate but one of its nests. On July 6, 1912, 

 I discovered the domicile of this bird, about twenty feet from the ground 

 in an oak tree in a patch of oak woods on Buffalo Bayou about five and a 

 half miles west of Houston. It was built in the smaller branches of the 

 tree, near the extremity of the limb, and it was only by climbing above it 

 that I was able to examine the contents, three young nearly ready to leave 

 the nest. The nest itself appeared to be a very carelessly built structure, 

 composed of a few grass stems, bark strips, pieces of dry leaves and weeds, 

 and was lined with fine grass stems and a few catkins. Both parents were 

 present, and very nervous; the female remained quiet while the male 

 continually uttered its call of pit-tuck, tuck. 



Geothlypis trichas trichas. Maryland Yellow-throat. — Only 

 one nest of this fairly common summer resident was found. On June 1, 

 1911, in a two-acre marsh a half mile north of Pierce Junction, I came on 

 one of these birds which acted as if it had a nest nearby, so I lay down to 

 watch. The bird, a male, was quite nervous, and it was some time before 

 he would approach the nest; finally, after I had lost him for a moment, he 

 appeared with an insect in his bill and flew to a tall clump of rushes about 

 a hundred feet away. I was soon at the place, parting the stems, and it 

 was but a moment until I located the nest. As I parted the rushes sur- 

 rounding the nest, the three fully fledged young which it contained hopped 

 from it and scattered in the surrounding grassy jungles, where I had some 

 difficulty in catching them. The nest itself was wedged in between the 

 stalks of the rushes about three inches above the slush of the marsh, and 

 was composed of very coarse dry grasses and lined with the finer dry grass 

 tops. Inside it measured one and forty-five hundredths inches in diameter 

 and an inch and a half deep. 



Icteria virens virens. Yellow-breasted Chat. — Very rare, and I 

 have found but one nest. On May 8, 1910, a nest containing four eggs was 

 found in low underbrush by the orchard of the farm where the nests of the 

 Blue Grosbeak and Painted Bunting were found, and not over thirty feet 

 from either of those nests. It was three feet up in a small thicket in a 

 damp spot, and was composed of dry grasses, strips of bark, a few weeds 

 and leaves, laid in layers. It was lined with finer grasses and a few root- 

 lets ; inside, it measured two and a half inches across by two and a quarter 

 inches deep. 



The four eggs measured: .92 X .69; .92 X .68; .91 X .70; and .87 X 

 .67. 



