TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 123 



taining four oval shaped, alabas- 

 ter-white eggs and also one spec- 

 kled egg, I had occasion lately 

 to find this same nest again and 

 to make a photo of it. As seen 

 on the view herein, the small 

 rounded nest was snugly hidden 

 between branches of a blackberry 

 bush and contained four white 

 and one much larger and slightly 

 spotted egg of some other bird 

 species, but the exact nature of 

 which type of prairie bird it be- 

 I'nged to is still a puzzle to me; 



leaves of some berry bush. 



Another interesting and very 

 attractive prairie nest I am in- 

 cluding in these notes, is the nest 

 of our red bird or cardinal. This 

 beautiful, bird, seen all over the 

 prairie plains and in particular 

 in forests and in our parks and 

 gardens, is undoubtedly, next to 

 the mockingbird, one of our finest 

 and most attractive song birds, 

 and its nest also is most beautiful 

 and artistically built. Though 

 preferring shady places in the 



A Prairie Sparrow Nest With Four Eggs and One Bastard 



however, from two fresh nests, 

 both of them containing several 

 eggs of same size and light red- 

 dish dotted color and found later, 

 I am quite sure now the bastard 

 egg in the nest was one of some 

 other prairie sparrow species, the 

 nest of this sparrow, of round or 

 oval shape, being exceedingly at- 

 tractive and usually found hidden 

 between the small branches and 



forest, our red bird builds its neat 

 in nearly any locality of the prai- 

 rie plains wherever there is plenty 

 of green foliage and brush and 

 some rivulet or tank, and the nest 

 is always built of the same type, 

 always of an equal round shape, 

 and lined out with thin grass 

 stems and branch particles or 

 moss. The nest depicted herein 

 was found in one of the attractive 



