238 Bcientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



a weight of 38 oz. ; the average weight of fifty birds shot during 

 November and December was about 30 oz. 



Ortyx virginiana texana (Lawr.) Texan Quail. — These 

 beautiful little birds are very common with us, frequenting the corn- 

 fields and edges of the wooded creeks which intersect the prairie. 

 In winter they show the greatest preference for wooded localities 

 going in coveys of from ten to thirty individuals, and lying so 

 close as to be almost unobtainable without a good dog. They fre- 

 quently perch upon trees. During the spring they come in pairs 

 into the fields or up the dry watercourses upon the prairie, where 

 morning and evening their monotonous but not unmusical callnote 

 may be heard on every side ; the earliest date on which I heard them 

 call in 1880 was May 7. They form their nests among long grass 

 in low-lying localities, but numbers of eggs are lost by being laid 

 promiscuously, chiefly about the edges of prairie paths. Occar 

 sionally a wounded bird wiU tower as does a grouse. Their average 

 weight is about 6| oz. but now and then a patriarchal specimen 

 attains to 7^ oz. 



Ardea herodias, Linn. Great Blue Heron. — This species 

 seems to be very rare here, since I observed but three examples, 

 one of which was obtained. 



Herodias ALBA egretta (Gmel). American Egret. — A sum- 

 mer visitor in considerable numbers, frequenting the borders 

 of rivers and ponds in the thick timber. During the autumn, 

 single birds may frequently be found about the margins of 

 prairie tanks, about which they sometimes remain for several 

 weeks ; I never observed one later than the middle of September. 

 Their food then consists chiefly of crayfish and grasshoppers with 

 an occasional lizard. 



Garzetta candidissima (Gmel). — Snowy Heron. — These beau- 

 tiful little herons are not uncommon in the low-lying wooded 

 districts during the summer, and are then so unsuspicious that 

 I knocked down my first specimen with a stick, after watchino- 

 it for several minutes searching for crayfish in the shallow water 

 of a puddle within a few feet of where I was standing. Arriving 

 about the beginning of May, they immediately retire to the 

 dampest and most impenetrable parts of the river bottom, where 

 they remain unmolested until the young are sufficiently strong 



