A Catalogue of Birds obtained in Navarro County, Texas. 177 



the arrival of the main body, the pioneers of which — those which 

 are seen early in December — are invariably adult males. The 

 members of each family keep together during the winter, and each 

 little party having made choice of a particular locality, which, if 

 possible, includes within its bounds a portion of a fence, on which 

 to roost at night and rest during the heat of the day, takes up 

 its temporary abode therein, never straying from the same spot, 

 and exhibiting the utmost jealousy should a member of another 

 family by any chance venture to intrude upon the self-constituted 

 domain, all the members banding together to pursue the stranger 

 with harsh, angry cries to its outskirts. Upon parts of the 

 prairie, however, where there are no fences nor trees on which to 

 roost, this arrangement is modified to suit the requirements of the 

 place, and there seems to be some limit of time to this exclusive- 

 ness ; for though equally jealous of the intrusion of a stranger 

 during the daytime, after a certain hour of the afternoon they 

 mix freely together, and wend their way in company to some 

 chosen clump of trees in the neighbourhood — those which are 

 devoid of leaves and detached from one another being preferred — 

 and in a similar manner they seek their own haunts in the morn- 

 ing. One such roosting place, which I frequently visited, 

 afforded rest nightly to about two hundred of these birds, and 

 towards sunset, when these were restlessly flitting from branch 

 to branch in search of a suitable twig whereon to pass the night, 

 it formed a sight whose beauty it would be hard to match. 

 They feed upon the prairie very much in the manner of the 

 Saxicolce, to which genus -they bear a striking resemblance in 

 many of their habits, much more so than does their eastern con- 

 gener. Like the chats, they frequently hover in the air for some 

 time with quickly-fluttering wings, but not moving from the same 

 spot, uttering a low and plaintive warbling, while they scan with 

 keen eyes the ground beneath in search of insects, and havino- 

 discovered one drop down and consume it upon the spot. They 

 are not at all shy, and so bear very close observation without 

 taking alarm. In addition to the song before mentioned, they 

 continually utter a low, clicking note like that produced by 

 striking two stones together, but it is so faint that the listener 

 must be very near to hear it. Unlike S. sialis, they are never 



