Mr. H. E. Dresser on the Birds of Southern Texas. 317 



the diffei-ence in the birds between the Nueces and Rio Grande, 

 and the Nueces and San Antonio. On the San Antonio side, 

 the Texan Quail [Ortyw texanus) and Cardinal {Cardinalis vir- 

 ginianus) were amongst the commoner birds, whereas past the 

 Nueces I only noticed the Texan Cardinal {Pyrrhuloa;ia sinuata) 

 and Blue Quail [Callipepla squamata). Nor did I see any 

 Quiscalus macrurus before arriving at the Nueces, Amongst 

 the birds observed on the way I may name Falco polyagrus, 

 Hypotriorchis columharius, Accipiter cooperi, A. fuscus, Buteo 

 elegans, Craxirex unicinctus, Sayornis sayus, Sialia arctica, Pi- 

 pilo ardicus, j^gialites montanus, and Fulix coUaris. 



I made a second trip to Eagle Pass on the 29th of January, 

 1864, remaining there until the 21st of March. At first I could 

 find no place to live at, every mud hut being filled ; but on the 

 second day Captain Weyman kindly ofi^ered me the Powder- 

 house at Fort Duncan, which I and an English friend soon 

 transformed into pretty fair bachelor-quarters. I had very 

 little to do, and was generally out with my gun ; but game was 

 very scarce. The town (if thirty to forty mud huts can be so 

 called) is on the banks of the river, and the adjacent country 

 is merely a sand plain overgrown with thorn-bushes and Cacti, 

 with a few hillocks in the distance. I rode to some of the 

 streams higher up the river, where the country was more wooded 

 and fertile-looking ; but, owing to the unsafe state of the fron- 

 tier, one cannot go far unless accompanied by a few well-armed 

 companions. The commonest birds near the town were Calli- 

 pepla squamata, Harporhynchus curvirostris, Oreoscoptes mon- 

 tanus, Poospiza bilineata, Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus, Falco 

 polyagrus, Hypotriorchis columharius, and Pyrrhuloxia sinuata, 

 which latter bird I often noticed in cages, and was told by 

 the Mexicans that a great number of their nests are to be 

 found at the proper season near the town. I also shot a couple 

 of fine specimens of Phcenopepla nitens. 



On my return to San Antonio, Westfall, the frontier-man, 

 met me at the Leona, and wanted me to take a hunt with him ; 

 but finding it would take up too much time, I was compelled, 

 most unwillingly, to refuse. I drove, however, ofi^ the road at 

 the Blanco, and spent three days hunting there and on the Sa- 



