A Catalogue of Birds obtained in Navarro County, Texas. 225 



again rarely fly more than a few yards. When migrating during 

 September and October, they sometimes occur in the narrow- 

 wooded creeks far out on the prairie. 



Chordeiles popetue (Vieill.) Night-hawk.— A. very abundant 

 summer visitor, frequenting the most open prairie districts, and 

 thinly-wooded localities during the breeding season, but in fall re- 

 sorting greatly to the post-oak barrens, where they pass the 

 greater part of the day, crouched along the upper branches of the 

 trees. They feed principally in the early morning and late evening, 

 but suffer no inconvenience from the sunlight, as they may be 

 seen occasionally pursuing msects in the broad glare of day ; un- 

 like Antrostomus they never hunt during the night. They arrive 

 with us about the last week of April, and immediately set about 

 the duties o£ incubation. They form no nest, depositing the two 

 eggs in a slight depression of the soil, bare patches of sand upon 

 the open prairie being a very favourite site ; when the nest is 

 approached, the female employs all her art to decoy the intruder 

 from its neigbourhood. By the end of September the}'' have all 

 left this district,and during that month migratory bands may often 

 be seen passing ; they fly high and steadily in a south-easterly 

 direction in a long straggling flock, so that I have watched them 

 pass in this way for an hour at a time. The white alar patch is 

 very variable in size, and cannot be taken as a reliable specific 

 character. Only the typical form is found here. 



■ Picus VILLOSUS (Linn.) Hairy Woodpeclxr. — A scarce resident 

 in the wooded districts of the county, and much more frequently 

 met with in winter than in summer. During the latter season I 

 only observed it once or twice in unfrequented parts of the timber 

 districts, where it was very shy and suspicious, but in the colder 

 months they come out into the more open woodlands and prairie 

 creeks, and are comparatively tame. The specimens which T 

 obtained diflered from typical villosus only in the colour of the 

 frontal feathers, which were brown and not white. 



Picus PUBESCENS, Linn. Downy Woodpecker. — A resident in 

 our district, but far less common in summer than in winter, when 

 it is abundant everywhere in the woodlands and creeks ; it is 

 most emphatically a migratory species, and during the fall numbers 

 may be seen almost every day accompanying the flocks of warblers, 

 creepers, titmice, and kinglets, in their passage south, while the 



