124 TEXAS NATUEE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



and evergreen berry bushes in a 

 hilly region near San Antonio, 

 snugly hidden between the foliage 

 and branches, which were held 

 aside to expose the entire nest and 

 the four reddish-brown dotted 

 eggs. In our river bottoms the 

 red bird prefers, as stated, some 

 locality with plenty of foliage, 

 but. often also it is met with with- 

 out much protection whatever be- 

 tween the forked branches of a 

 small haekberry or boxelder tree 

 or in the thickets of vines, and in 



nest to give it extra strong hold. 

 Such breeding nests, of course, 

 should not be disturbed purpose- 

 ly, as some vandals are wont to 

 do ; however, the breeding bird 

 invariably returns to its nest if 

 frightened away, as long as the 

 eggs are not disturbed or broken 

 by a careless hand. 



Without wishing to go into fur- 

 ther detail, in a general way, 

 concerning our Texas red bird, I 

 append the following observations 

 of the celebrated naturalist and 



A Typical Red Bird Nest and Eggs in a Yellow Berry Brush 



open forest and mesquite and oak 

 brush. Whilst with a fish- 

 ing party south of the river bot- 

 tom, we met several breeding red 

 birds along the river bank, and 

 one particularly fine nest entirely 

 hidden between the foliage of an 

 elder tree ovehanging the river 

 bank arid containing its charac- 

 teristic four small-dotted and com- 

 paratively large oval eggs, was 

 exceedingly attractive, several of 

 the rank grapevines being inter- 

 woven in the base part of the 



ornithologist, Audubon, in H, 

 Nehrling 's work on Birds of North 

 America : 



"Wherever the cardinal makes 

 its appearance it is welcomed as a 

 pet by everyone, by reason of its 

 brilliant red and glittering color, 

 and its melodious and rich song, 

 which is loud and clear, and re- 

 minds one of the finest tunes of 

 the flageolet; more and more, 

 however, it moderates, until gceA' 

 ually it ceases entirely. During 

 mating time the song of the red 



