TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 81 



both eggs exactly as found be- 

 tween the imbedded rock frag- 

 ments (and as seen in the photo 

 herein) nearly in full natural 

 size. The photo was taken by 

 inverting the old camera straight 

 downward, in order to get all de- 

 tails and the right focus of all 

 objects seen on the picture. 



Like the wild dove, the female 

 buUbat usually is supplanted by 

 its mate when disturbed from its 

 breeding place, the male bird al- 

 ways flying gracefully with its 

 beautifully striped and speckled 

 long wings in a circular flight 

 around, or close by the nest, now 



seen on the photo, I had endeav- 

 ored at various times during May 

 and June to find a breeding bull- 

 bat ; and several times, around the 

 hilly and favorable breeding 

 places adjoining Cassin's lake, 

 and on the open hilly plains east- 

 ward of the old and beautiful 

 Meyer's river bottom pecan for- 

 est and picnic place (where in 

 former years lots of buUbats 

 sought their breeding haunts on 

 the limestone and graveled prai- 

 rie plains), I encountered many 

 of the buUbat birds, but never 

 could locate the eggs. It is gen- 

 erally after the female has been 



San Antonians at St. Geronimo, Near Gallagher's Ranch, Looking for Bullbats 



Scenery Close to High Rock Embankments with Cavelike Excavations and Jungles of Mountain 



Grass Along the Rock Precipices and Wild Flowerbeds Below 



and then taking a rest in a 

 crouching position on some near- 

 by limb of a shade tree, and 

 shortly afterward again circling 

 over the nesting place, until it 

 gradually, or suddenly, in the 

 fashion of the prairie hawk, 

 alights on the two eggs, where 

 it remains in a crouched position, 

 and resembles more a piece of 

 dark 'wood than a living bird. 

 Whenever disturbed, the female 

 bird invariably soon returns to 

 its breeding place. 



Before finding the specimens 



breeding a long time on the eggs 

 that the bird is unable to fly 

 quickly from its breeding place, 

 and it is then generally that it is 

 detected by its fluttering and 

 noisy flight. And also during 

 many an annual outing to a rela- 

 tive's farm north of Helotes, and 

 in the hilly and mountainous re- 

 gions around San Geronimo, and 

 fifteen miles further west, around 

 the Medina dam, I searched in 

 vain for breeding bullbats dur- 

 ing the month of June. The hot 

 months of July and August there- 



