104 TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



romping region among the dense 

 chaparral on both sides of the 

 river for wild jungle animals — 

 now about extinct. 



Large areas of fine land is noTi 

 converted into fertile fields; and 

 it is near this romantic ranch, 

 that one bright , Sunday noon, we 

 came across a number of the 

 strange and beautiful tree birds; 

 and a companion of ours, shooting 

 at a squirrel inside a dense con- 

 glomeration of the wild mustanfj 

 grapevines, accidentally woundad 

 one of these attractive birds, 

 which was afterwards photo-repro- 

 duced by the writer and seen on 

 this page. After this, the bird 

 was captured, and it measured ten 

 inches in length, the photograph 

 of this bird on the tree limb shows 

 same about one-third less its 

 natural size ; and the second view, 

 showing the head and breastparts 

 in about natural size. It is one 

 of the largest and most beautiful 

 type of woodpeckers that I am 

 aware of, the head feathers and 

 back parts of its body and the 

 wings being of a light chocolate 

 and gray color, dotted with black 

 bands and stripes, and resembling 

 closely the plumage markings of 

 the Mexican blue quail. It has a 

 large and bold bill, slightly 

 curved, but less curved than the 

 bill of the common woodpecker. 

 The inside wing feathers, as well 

 as the tail feathers are of a most 

 beautiful blending Indian-red 

 which reminds one of the coloring 

 of the robin, but the rather long 

 tail feathers are sharp pointed, 



each one resembling so man.v lan- 

 ces or daggers, and when flying, 

 the tail is spread out like a fan, 

 glittering like rubies; and the 

 breast feathers also are very at- 

 tractive, each of the light gray 

 plumes showing a round or heart 

 shaped and jet black spot, as seen 

 also clearly depicted on the photo- 

 graph. 



This strange bird has been well 

 known to the writer for years, 

 and always met with along and on 

 the high forest trees, where they 

 fly from tree to tree in search of 

 their insect food. I once met a 

 party with a dead specimen 

 and reprimanded him severely for 

 killing such useful forest birds; 

 he claimed they lived on ber- 

 ries, which, of course is not the 

 case, and I had him open 

 the stomach when he was astound- 

 ed to witness the large amount of 

 predigested insect remnants, even 

 a part of a young centipede that 

 bird had consumed. 



By all means, the woodpecker 

 should be protected, as it lives en- 

 tirely on premature insects or 

 worms and all sorts of insects, 

 which they gather with their long 

 bill from under the loose bark or 

 cracks in trees, etc., and their life 

 history in this respect is too well 

 known as to dwell on same in de- 

 tail here. They also are fond of 

 ants, and often have I seen them 

 on the ground, near, or on an ant 

 hole, gathering the pesky red ant 

 and perhaps other ground insects 

 and larval beetles, etc. 



The Chaparral Cock and Its Nest 



To find the breeding nest of 

 a chaparral cock with two eggs 

 and a young "chaparral" only 

 about 15 days old — close to a city 

 where the one reproduced herein 

 was found, is quite a rarity and 

 of much interest in general. 



The nest was found near a 



pasture southeast of San Antonio 

 in a brush thicket, where also 

 large numbers of the wild dove, 

 the mockingbird, scissor-tail bird, 

 red bird and sparrow, etc., abound. 

 The nest resembled in all particu- 

 lars a mockingbird's nest only 

 it was about twice as large, and 



