﻿FIELD AND FOREST. I3I 



treme from the light Mexican race (var. leucogaster) which occurs on the 

 Texas side of the Rio Grande." (R. Ridgway. ) This species of wren 

 was quite common along the low vine- tangled banks of a dry river 

 bed, the locality being nearly inaccessible. I procured but one of the 

 many I shot. On going back to camp I noticed one on the top of a tali 

 dead tree, singing merrily ; this one was killed by my companion, Mr. 

 Earll. Parus atricapillus and Lophophanes bicolor, in the same lo- 

 cality as the above. L. bicolor quite common, as was Regulis calen- 

 dula and Setophaga ruticilla. In the heavy timber there was no 

 dearth of wood-peckers e g., Picus pubescens and villosus, .Cenlurus car- 

 otin us and Sphyrapicus varius were shot. In the more open woods, 

 Colaptes auratus and Mclancrpes erxthrocephalus. Mr. Earll had a 

 long chase after a Hylatomus pileatus, that finally took refuge in a 

 hollow tree and thus defied his pursuers. Sitta carolinensis was seen 

 a few times. Also Mniotilta varia and Dendro:ca maculosa. Other 

 warblers were seen, but not procured, and I could not with certainty 

 identify them. 



In the low groves on the prairies, Spizella pallida, socialis and pusilla 

 were shot. Among fallen timber, and in brushwood were " fished out 

 Passerella iliaca, Zonotrichia leucophrys and querula and any number 

 oijunco hyemalis ; this was the middle of December in south central 

 Texas, and in less than four weeks later I found the same quite com- 

 mon in Jefferson County, Wisconsin : the weather extremely cold and 

 the ground covered with snow. It seems to me there is some incon- 

 sistency here ; the Juncos leave the vicinity of Madison for the North, 

 usually about April the fifteenth. Will some expert give an explana- 

 tion ? By far, the most abundant sparrow on the dry praries of Waller 

 County, was Passerculus savanna; in fact you could scarcely go a rod 

 in some localities and not start one. I cannot rid myself of the con- 

 viction that some of the suspicious looking sparrows that were targets, 

 but did not become specimens, on account of my poor markmanship, 

 (they had to be shot while flying from one tuft of grass to another, 

 generally about six feet) were C. lecontii; one specimen of Coturni- 

 culus passerinus was killed. Also Pocecetes gramineus, Melospiza 

 palustris and lincolni. 



M. lincolni next to savanna was the most common. Several 

 flocks of Eretnophila alpestris were frequently seen on the prairie, and 

 procured. One small flock of Titlarks, which from their white 



