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TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



dense brush and ravines along 

 the newly fenced hilly region, but 

 ultimately my friend recognized 

 the white objects on the place 

 we had marked. We approached 

 very cautiously to see if the old 

 bullbat was still there, and were 

 disappointed for a while at least. 

 There was no trace of the old bull- 

 bat on that spot, but further off 

 •one was seen flying close to the 

 ground among the mesquite trees. 

 On closer inspection of the place, 

 where we had se6n the eggs seven 

 days previous, I noticed several 

 eggshells lying around, this, oi" 

 course, led us to - search around 

 for the new offspring (my friend 

 ■suggesting shortly before that 

 some ground squirrel or other ro- 

 dent or a snake may have disposed 

 of the two eggs.) After quite a 

 little while, my friend all at once 

 exclaimed: "Here they are. Doe- 

 tor"! and sure enough, the two 

 little baby bullbats were crouch- 

 ing on the ground under a more 

 shady acacia brush close by, and 

 here also I took the view of them 

 seen above. 



Both were of about the same 

 size, smalleer than, a neuboru 

 chick, and of a slight yellowish- 

 white color, with a few gray spots 

 and strips along the back part of 

 their fuzzy body. Though small 

 they were a lively lot, and both 

 quickly tried to escape — running 

 as fast as a pair of baby quail 

 under the shady and rocky brush. 

 After focusing the spot of en- 

 counter, and after placing some 

 of the eggshells close by the little 

 fellows, a short time view was 

 taken wdth slightly reverted came- 

 ra. From general apnearahce, it 

 seems both of the young birdh 

 were only twoi or three days old. 



Gradually the body feathers as- 

 sume more of a light brown color, 

 and the birds grow very rapidly, 

 so that in a week or two they are 

 less easy to capture and photo- 

 graph. After making it as comfort- 

 able as possible for the little bird 

 kids, we left them under the shady 

 place, which as stated was covered 

 all-around with the peculiar dark 

 (India) red fragments of rock 

 scattered around these hilly re- 

 gions. 



The ClifFswallow's Mud Nest 



I herein present to my readers a 

 view of the cliff swallow clinging to 

 its oval shaped nest, and also a 

 second rare view of the Texas cliff 

 swallow's mud nests, with one 

 of ,the nests expiosing the. eggs. 

 The photo was prepared after 

 considerable diflBculty in "getting 

 to the nests, for reason of the steep 

 rock precipices on which they 

 were attached — with hundreds of 

 a similar kind. Such nests have 

 been cursorily alluded to in others 

 of my reminiscences of Texas 

 nature-objects; these were 

 reproduced during an outing years 

 ago in West Medina County where 

 they are encountered in large 

 numbers along the high rock preci- 



pices and nearly always along 

 and above some rivulet, and always 

 some ten to twenty and more 

 feet above water — if such is present 

 They plaster their building material 

 —some soft clay in much the same 

 manner as does the mud dauber 

 wasp against _ rough walls of rocks, 

 and always high enough to protect 

 them from their many enemies; 

 and during breeding time myriads 

 of the small swallows or martins 

 can be seen building their nest 

 amidst a fearful noise they make 

 when being disturbed. Swarms 

 of them continually circle again 

 and again and emit a pecu- 

 liar screeching noise whilst others' 

 take a rest on their large mud 



