84 TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



the canyons and high mountain 

 precipices around Geronimo, I 

 once met a chuck-will's widow 

 bird in a large cave, where it was 

 crouching in a dark comer, but 

 suddenly flew off before we could 

 come near enough to take a view 

 of it. Around the evergreen hills 

 and the rock canyons of Helotes 

 and in fact all over the evergreen 

 mountain forest regions of west 

 Texas, this bird, as well as the 

 whippoorwill, is often heard at 

 night tirae, especially during a 

 bright moon lighted night. 



Before closing these observa- 

 tions, in particular of the bu!!' 

 bat bird, I wish to call your 

 attention to the photograph here- 

 in of a buUbat escaping its breed- 

 ing haunts, taken by surprise with 

 the camera at short distance (or- 

 iginar photo slightly enlarged.) 



A friend, Mr. Alfred Haubold 

 was present, and the bird had 

 been found on the southeast hills 

 of Cassin's lake. The ground 

 there is very favorable for these 

 peculiar ground breeders; the en- 

 tire hilly regions being covered 

 \vjth more or less brushy and 

 shady mesquite trees and others, 

 mostly berry-bearing brush, and 

 are more or less graveled, with 

 here and there bare places of the 

 white limestone, and the ground 

 itself along the hills is covered 

 v/ith imbedded small rock frag- 

 ments of a mingling of black, red, 

 brown, and bluish color, and the 

 most of it seemingly of volcanic 

 origin. These rocky regions sim- 

 ulate the colorings of the buUbat 

 and its eggs closely, and it is for 

 this reason the buUbat very 

 shrewdly seeks such places for its 

 breeding haunts; and on our last 

 trip there one early morning, in 

 the middle of July, we twice 

 found a pair of young but full 

 grown bullbat birds, which closely 

 resembled a pair of young owls. 

 We came very near capturing one 

 of the pair, but they escaped. On 

 another occasion, in these hills, 



which overlook a beautiful small 

 lake and a dairy farm with lots 

 of cattle and a large cultivated 

 piece of land iii the north-eastern 

 district, we came across unawares, 

 within four steps of a breeding 

 bullbat, and it only fluttered away 

 after I had reached and pulled a 

 small mesquite -branch aside to 

 examine its nest. The old bull- 

 bat was crouching on the gravel- 

 ed ground close to the stems of 

 the mesquite brush, and I called 

 my friend's attention to same, 

 when, as I pulled the branch aside 

 it fluttered away and exposed two 

 beautiful and shining eggs of same 

 appearance as the others illustrat--^ 

 ed herein. 



It is here also, east of the beau- 

 tiful 'Cassin's lake, that the writer 

 and my companion, Mr. Haubold, 

 encountered the two young bull-, 

 bats, just hatched and photoilhw- 

 trated on the spot found, and seen 

 on the engraving which is slightly 

 enlarged. They looked like a pair, 

 of very young chicks, but with 

 much broader head and mouth, of 

 yellowish white color; and- after 

 the views v/ere taken they ran a^ 

 fast as a pair of young quail, to 

 some nearby cacti brush where 

 they were left, unmolested. 



It is truly wonderfulhow theso 

 otherwise very fleety and unex- 

 celled sailors of the valleys and 

 prairie lands seek just such breed- 

 ing grounds that simulate their 

 own grayishihtown and -dotted 

 body colors ; and it is for this par- 

 ticular feature also, in searching 

 for a breeding bullbat, that one 

 must put his eyes right on the 

 spot the bird escapes the ground, 

 else it v/ill be mere guess work 

 and accidental that the eggs are 

 found. When the bird escapes, 

 it will return to its breeding place 

 after a short, time, and it is then, 

 if the exact . place is known, or 

 marked, that a snapshot can be 

 taken, or even a time exposure 

 (best after focusing the place and 

 making a ' ' pull-the-string " expo- 



