BLACK-CRESTED TITMOUSE. 109 
satisfy my long cherished wish to study in the quiet seclusion of the backwoods the 
wealth of Texan bird-life. In fact, my life, from the first day I settled, was that of 
a regular backwoodsman. As the house rested on posts, large numbers of the half-wild 
hogs inhabiting the forest, chose their night lodgings beneath its floor. The consequence 
was, that the blithely saltatory little insect—prosaically called the flea—came down 
upon us in overwhelming numbers. Scorpions of different sizes crept up the walls, and 
in the night, in order to vary. the monotony of their existence, often made their way 
over our faces. Woe to him, who protested against this impudence; a painful, though 
not dangerous sting was the reward of such temerity. In addition to these guests 
there were many wasps, some of which lived in the crevices of the ceilings, while others 
build their mud nests in every available corner, and in the clothes hanging on the walls. 
The formidable centipede, too, was among our common visitors, and in small holes in 
the ground near my dwelling there lived many so-called tarantulas (Mygale Hentzi). 
These fierce spiders were more dreaded by the settlers than the venomous snakes. Most 
numerous and very troublesome was the rusty-red ant, known to the scientific world as 
Myrmica malefaciens. The children, while playing near their nests, were often bitten by 
them till they screamed with pain. Multitudes of these ants found their way into the 
bird-cages hanging in-doors and under the veranda, and in a very short time carried to 
their nests all the millet and canary seed intended for-my birds. Kerosene, tar, and 
turpentine failed to exterminate them.—Being a great admirer of flowers, shrubs, and 
trees, I had planted cape jasmines', myrtles, china trees, grape myrtles*, roses, pittos- 
porums, coral-plants*, and especially magnificent amaryllis (of the genus Hippeastrum, 
Crinum, and Pancratium). Imagine my vexation at finding one morning all my plants 
stripped of their leaves. They had all been cut in small pieces and carried away by leaf- 
cutting ants to their nests which frequently were more than half a mile distant. Wood- 
ticks, and especially the almost microscopical “‘red-bugs,” did their best to make our 
existence uncomfortable. The latter found their way by thousands through our clothes 
into the skin, causing an intolerable itching. 
I have nowhere noticed so many snakes as in the neighborhood of my backwood- 
cabin. A very common intrepid, and poisonous species, and one, which in color 
closely resembles the soil or dead leaves, was the copperhead, or moccasin snake. The 
very first evening we spent in our new home, a large chicken snake crept through the 
open window into the room. Later on such intrusions became very frequent. The 
hideous creatures stole behind books, into closets, and often took possession of the beds. 
My birds, hanging in cages to the walls, were in succession choked and swallowed by 
the smaller individuals of the same species. 
Yet, one finally becomes accustomed to the privations and hardships of life in the 
backwoods. Little by little many things change for the better. A fence is built, and 
a fine garden laid out. The half-wild hogs, centipedes, and tarantulas disappear one by 
one, though the ants, scorpions, snakes, and mosquitoes remain.—Highly disagreeable as 
is the part of the life of the backwoodsman, so far contemplated, may certainly be pro- 
nounced, it is not lacking in esthetic qualities. Indescribably beautiful is the springtime 
in the months of February, March, and April. The whole ground of the post-oak woods, 
1 Gardenia. 2 Lagerstroemia. 3 Erythrina. 
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