TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 119 



if not some natural instinct in- 

 herent with most of the feathery 

 tribe, induces them to seek 

 better shelter and safer incubators 

 for their offspring by seeking' the 

 abandoned nest of other bird spe- 

 cie? 



Often have I encountered a 

 fresh dove nest on brush or small 

 tree of the prairie, built on top 

 of a flat and larger nest than the 

 usual dove nest, but I never en- 

 countered such nest containing an 

 egg of some other bird species, as 

 is occasionally the case with other 

 birds. Such an instance I wit- 



ter closely, but of smaller size. 



As to the eggsucker bird, and 

 its nest, I may add here a few re- 

 cent observations and a good view 

 of such bird, encountered near San 

 Antonio. 



I was once led to believe that 

 this so-called eggsucker bird built 

 its nest nearly exclusively on the 

 branches of a wild persimmon 

 tree. This, however, from the 

 many nests ■ seen of late of this 

 bird species, is an error, as the 

 "eggsucker," which seems to be 

 a mjsnomer, and from recent ob- 

 servations and those of others, an 



A Typical Dovb Nest on Fork op Mesquite Thee Branch 



nessed lately, when a beautifully 

 built prairie sparrow nest, con- 

 taining four oval shaped and 

 elongated, alabaster-white eggs of 

 about the size of a 'small bean, 

 also contained a light speckled 

 and nearly round egg of light red- 

 dish gray color of some other 

 bird specie, and about twice the 

 size of the sparrow eggs. It was 

 riot the egg of the eggsucker bird, 

 nor of the mockingbird, or red 

 bird, though it resembled the lat- 



insect destroyer, especially fond 

 of beetles and caterpillars, builds 

 its own nest on various trees and 

 brush; and I have met such nest 

 with its characteristically large 

 and elliptis shaped bluish-green, 

 exceedingly attractive eggs on the 

 branches, or mostly between the 

 trunk of the mesquite tree, on 

 small pecan and box elder trees 

 along the river bottoms and in the 

 agarita bush. This bird, which 

 belongs to the cuckoo family, is 



