182 TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



marauding animals, as also a few of 

 the featherery tribe, including the 

 chaparral cock, occasionally prey 

 on birds' eggs and other foodstuffs 

 out of the ordinary. 



As stated above, the armadillo 

 is mostly an insect and herb feeder, 

 and its native haunt is mostly in 

 secluded rocky regions, in forests 

 and jungle thickets where it lives 

 underground or in caves, and rock 

 cavities, and the writer was wit- 

 ness to several such haunts years 

 ago in the hilly regions of San 



five young ones about a week old, 

 which apeared very attractive and 

 resembled so many miniature- pigs. 

 When seen by my friend; Mr. A. 

 Haubold, all rapidly retreated into 

 a large and deep underground 

 hole, and a wide trail could be 

 seen along the earth mound the 

 armadillo had prepared in digging 

 the hole, and leading through the 

 dense underbrush among some 

 thickets of mustang grape vines 

 and pecan trees. 



It was during a bright moon- 

 light night, some ten years ago. 



A Captured Armadillo: San Geronimo ; Camp in Rear 



Geronimo in Medina County. There 

 as well as in the rock regions at 

 Helotes, Boerne and other western 

 settlements the armadillo still 

 abounds to-day, but is rapidly 

 diminishing in numbers for rea- 

 sons stated. During an outing 

 last year (summer of 1910), we 

 came across a large female arma- 

 dillo on the river bottom, ten 

 miles below San Antonio, with 



when several friends and the wri- 

 ter pitched their tent in the midst 

 of an old oak thicket close to a 

 running sti'eam. The camp and 

 the interior of the tent was lighted 

 by a lantern, and whilst the boys 

 were enjoying a game of domino 

 all at once the loud barking of a 

 dog was heard through the cedars 

 of the Geronimo Valley, and about 

 a half hour later we heard the loud 



