May 1887.] 



A^D OOLOGIST. 



67 



locality but we were not so fortunate as to 

 come across any. 



Geococcifx calif ornianus^ Roacl-ruiuier ; Chap- 

 arral Cock. We first saw this bird in Comal 

 County on April 8th. The same clay we found 

 its nest. It was built in a mesquite tree about 

 seven feet from the ground, and resembled a 

 large nest of a Cuckoo, being formed of small 

 sticks, lined with rootlets. It contained eight 

 eggs, all incubated. The birds were very shy. 



Coccyzus americnnus, Yellow-billed Cuckoo. 

 Scarce. Only saw one pair of these birds, and 

 found their nest, containing five eggs. This 

 was on Ma}' 2nd, at Corpus Christi. 



Coccyzus erythropthalmus^ Black-billed Cuckoo. 

 Also scarce. I found one nest that the birds 

 were just beginning to build. 



Stn'x Hfljidosa^ Barred Owl. We saw one 

 specimen in Comal County, and were told they 

 bred there. 



Scops asio maccalU, Texan Screech Owl. 

 Rather abundadt. We saw only two, but heard 

 them frequently at niglit. Two of their eggs 

 were brought to me while I was in Comal 

 Count}'. 



Bubo vlrguiianus, Great Horned Owl. Rather 

 abundant in Nueces County, where they fre- 

 quented the low mesquite trees. Saw two 

 birds, and heard them at night. A set of two 

 eggs has since been sent to nie from that lo- 

 cality. 



Falco pereyrinus nceiuus, American Peregrine 

 Falcon. We saw one bird of this species in 

 Nueces County. It attrcked a goose and killed 

 it in our presence, but the prey was too heavy 

 for it, and the goose dropped in the water. 

 Our guide informed us that it was a rare bird 

 in that locality. 



Tbinunculus sparverius^ Sparrow Hawk. Very 

 common. We saw a great many of them in 

 Comal and other counties. They were as shy, 

 however, as they are in the North. 



Polyhorus cheriway. Carcara Eagle. Com- 

 paratively rare in Comal County, where we 

 only saw al)Out a dozen birds, of which we 

 shot four. Two nests were found which were 

 built in the tops of Live Oak trees, although an 

 old nest was found in a pine tree. They were 

 about thirty feet from the ground and very 

 bulky; being composed of good-sized sticks, 

 with a lining of coarse prarie grass. The 

 diameter was about three and a half feet, but 

 the structure very shallow. I was told that 

 the birds returned year after year to the same 

 nest, and would even lay a second time in it 

 after being deprived of their first set of eggs. 



One nest contained two eggs and the other 



three. The set of two were of the ordinary type 

 of coloration for this bird, being of a reddish 

 brown ground color, marked with blotches of a 

 darker sliade of l)rown. The other set had 

 some white on the ground color, and the blotch- 

 es of brown were larger and fewer in number. 



One of the set of three eggs we put under a 

 hen to hatch out the chick. The eggs were 

 fresli when we took them, and the hen was ex- 

 actly twenty-one days hatching the egg; so 

 this may be regarded as fixing the period of 

 incubation of this species, unless it be that the 

 old hen, sitting so continuously as she did, per- 

 formed her work more tiuickly than the Cara- 

 caia would haxe done. When ready to break 

 the shell the chick made such an unusual noise 

 that the old hen left her nest in disgust, and 

 the young bird died. I got him out and suc- 

 ceeded in making a good mounted specimen of 

 him. The plumage is a mass of yellowish 

 down, with the wings and topnot of a rusty 

 brown. He measured five inches from the tip 

 of the beak to the end of the tail, and the beak 

 is very chai-acteristic of the species. 



We did not see any Caracaras at Laredo, but 

 fonnil them more plentiful in Nueces County 

 than they wen- in Comal. We found six sets, 

 each containing three eggs, which seemed to be 

 the usual number there, and a reliable authority 

 told us that he knew of a set of four having 

 been taken. In this locality the nests were not 

 more than five or six feet from the ground, in 

 the tops of the low mesquite trees, and the 

 structure was not as bulky. We found one set 

 on an island oft" the coast of Nueces County, 

 built in the top of a Spanish dagger bush, 

 about eight feet high. 



On May 19th, near Corpus Christi, I found a 

 set of three eggs of this bird, which are the 

 most peculiarly marked specimens I have ever 

 seen. The giound color is pure white, and this 

 is covered with small spots of bright reddish 

 brown, but the whole appearance of the egg is 

 much whiter than any others I have met with. 



One of this set. however, is of a plain brown- 

 ish red, with no white on it. They measure 

 2.36x1.87; 2.50x1.84 and 2.29x1.79. 



I kept a young Caracara, about ten days old, 

 for three days, during which time I fed it on 

 arsenic in large quantities, apparently with no 

 bad results. Its death was finally caused by com- 

 pression of the lungs — the effect of a squeeze. 



Panclion haliaetus carolinensis, American Os- 

 prey ; Fish Hawk. These birds appeared to be 

 quite common on the Gulf coast. We were in- 

 formed they bred there, but we did not find 

 any of their nests. 



