TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 117 



western climate, now nearly ex- 

 tinct entirely, roamed in profu- 

 sion in those olden days around 

 the sandy hillsides, brush and 

 cactus thickets surrounding 

 Matchell's laguna and the new 

 "Blue "Wing Lake" and I recol- 

 lect how the old hunter and nat- 

 urlist, Toudouse, related his en- 

 counter with the eagle and rattle 

 snake depicted herein. Similar 



to his encounter with a huge lynx, 

 Mr. Toudouse had surprised cloje 

 to the tule edges of Mitchell Lake 

 in the act of tearing the neck of 

 a large spoonbill duck off its body. 

 The huge snake was still alive and 

 partly coiled around the eagle's 

 body, when the old hunter' with a 

 quick shot, ended the eagle's life, 

 in order to add both specimens to 

 his valuable collection of Texas 

 zoological trophies. 



A Few More Typical Texas Bird Nests 



As is quite well known, May and 

 June usually are the main nest- 

 building and breeding seasons of 

 most of our interesting feathery 

 tribe; and just now, beginning of 

 June, the woods around San An- 

 tonio are teaming with breeding 

 birds of all kinds, and some of 

 our tule lakes and swampy re- 

 gions harbor nests of various wa- 

 terfowls — though sparingly, and I 

 submit elsewhere the nest with 

 eleven eggs of a waterhen, encoun- 

 tered and photographed at the 

 old Mitchell's Lake hunting pre- 

 serve, at close range. The entire 

 nest was biiilt of particles of the 

 tulereed seen covering that lake, 

 close to the bank and some under- 

 brush and shrubbery; and the 

 large, perfectly round tule nest, 

 with its contents of eleven oval- 

 shaped and light reddish brown 

 and slightly spotted eggs, and a 

 young baby hen a day or two old 

 in the nest, presented a beautiful 

 scene to behold, as seen herein. 



As a rule, our prairie birds have 

 their favorite breeding haunts and 

 typical methods of nest-building, 

 to which they invariably and most 

 ingeniously adhere; and some 

 among the great majority build 

 their nests directly on the ground, 

 or in holes in the ground and 

 trees. Our quail and the buUbat 

 bird and a few others, invariably 



build their nests on the ground, 

 in some secluded and hidden 

 place — the buUbat bird, however, 

 not building any nest at all, as 

 it deposits its eggs on the ground 

 without any extra nest enclosure; 

 and still other bird species, sim- 

 ilar to the European cuckoo fam- 

 ily, generally prefer to appropri- 

 ate the nest of a different bird 

 specie. Having noticed this also 

 in late years with our 'wild dove. 

 I had occasion l&tely to witness 

 this again in various breeding 

 localities of this bird, and I 

 have met quite a number of breed- 

 ing wild doves with an egg or 

 two on the abandoned but newly 

 outlined nest of some other bird 

 species, especially of the mocking- 

 bird; and also a dove breeding 

 on a nest built directly on the 

 ground was found. This was wit- 

 nessed only recently, and I 

 prepared a nice view of this dove 

 nest on the ground with its two 

 oval and snow-white eggs. It was 

 encountered during an outing, in 

 a mesquite thicket and partly 

 hilly region, where hundreds of 

 other birds, especially the mock- 

 ingbird, the red cardinal, the cac- 

 tus wren, the scissor-tail bird, 

 chaparral cock and various wea~ 

 verbirds and others have their se- 

 cluded haunts, and it was stum- 

 bled upon rather unexpectedly. 



