172 TEXAS AND ARIZONA 



I saw a strange warbler the other day. That 

 is to say, I thought I saw one. I had been wan- 

 dering for a whole forenoon amid the chaparral 

 just outside the city of San Antonio, and had 

 enjoyed a good number of novel sensations, when 

 suddenly (such things always come suddenly, but 

 it seems necessary to repeat the word) a tiny 

 bird moved in a low bush directly before me. 

 " A gray warbler with no wing-marks," I said ; 

 and the next instant I saw that its crown was 

 light yellow. It moved again, and the forward 

 parts came into view. Its throat also was yellow. 

 At that moment it was eating a yellow berry. 

 Its ground color was near the shade worn by a 

 juvenile chestnut-sided warbler, and the yellow 

 of the crown and throat was very lightly laid on 

 over the gray, so to express it, just as it is in the 

 chestnut-side's case. 



Now what kind of warbler can this be? I 

 asked myself : a gray warbler with a yellow crown 

 and a yellow throat, and no other adornments. 

 And with the question there came into my mind, 

 as by the effect of immediate inspiration, the 

 word Calaveras. Whether it was Calaveras or 

 something else, there could be no doubt of my 

 being able to clear up the question, once I should 

 have a book in my hand. 



I resumed my peregrinations, therefore, the 



