TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



son-in-law, Wm. R. Hoffmann, 

 and we had a time of it to keep 

 the lively young water hen 

 (only a few days old) on the 

 nest in order to take this view. 

 The little fellow was later ten- 

 derly taken care of by one of 

 the ladies present. The nest 

 had thirteen eggs of white and 

 light brownish-red and slightly 

 speckled color and they were snug- 

 ly enclosed in the nice rotund 

 nest which the old water hen 

 had prepared entirely of parti- 

 cles of tule. Another photo- 



environments and the myriads 

 of wasps' nests and bats which 

 fed there on the millions of big 

 mosquitoes) . These wasps' nests 

 decorated every inch of the in- 

 ner roof; and a noteworthy co- 

 incidence it is that the wasps 

 very rarely attacked the hunt- 

 ers. The wasps' nests were of 

 the "muddauber" variety, which 

 the pesky insects prepare by 

 gathering soft particles of mud 

 — often miles away — to build 

 the peculiar mud mounds with 

 the many-funneled chambers, in 



Waterhen Tule Nest With Eggs and Young Hen, at Mitchell's Lake Hunting Preserve 



graph herein shows a number 

 of the lively old water hens on 

 an open space of Mitchell's 

 Lake, and I prepared the view 

 a week after the nest photo 

 from an elevation at the open 

 window of one of the old boat 

 houses at the southeast end of 

 the lake (now removed long 

 since). These old boat houses 

 were, in themselves, at the time 

 of their existence, a very in- 

 teresting phenomenon (on ac- 

 count of the picturesque lake 



which the female wasp deposits 

 one egg. After the egg is de- 

 posited the wasp plasters all 

 these "incubating chambers" 

 hermetiea;lly with scft clay 

 until during the pupa state and 

 further metamorphosis of the 

 young developing wasp, the lat- 

 ter, at maturity, carves a hole 

 through the top of the covered 

 canal, and escapes into the 

 world, and at once begins to 

 help the balance of the nest 

 builders to prepare additional 



