BAYLOR UNIVERSITY BULLETIN 



PUBLISHED BI-MONTHLY AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY, WACO, TEXAS 

 Henry Lee Hargrove, Ph. D., Editor Francis Marion Allen, A. B., Manager 



INTRODUCTION 



In compiling the following check-list of Texas birds, the writer has tried to be 

 conservative and has only included those species which he was satisfied from 

 authentic published record or personal knowledge, were inhabitants of the State. He 

 regrets that the members of the United States Biological Survey were not permitted 

 by the State authorities to continue their investigations, as they would in all prob- 

 ability have added much to om* knowledge concerning the birds of M^estem Texas. 

 The writer, although he is connected with one of the largest educational institutions 

 in Texas, is not permitted to take birds for scientific purposes; yet it is a fact that 

 during the three years prior to the enactment of the present law, he collected only 

 eleven specimens, six of which were migrating waterbirds, for the shooting of which 

 he would not at any time have been liable for a fine. At the same time, out-of-State 

 correspondents write that they constantly receive birds and eggs from Southern 

 Texas and wonder why he has discontinued his investigations. The chances are that 

 the most of these "Southern Texas birds" were collected along the Valley of the 

 Lower Rio Grande in Northern Mexico and labeled up to suit the occasion. Such 

 things have happened! 



I had the privilege of meeting one of the Biological Survey collectors — Mr. 

 Arthur Howell, a gentleman in every sense the word implies and a true lover of Na- 

 ture. He is an investigator, not a bird murderer and all of the specimens taken by 

 him were for the purpose of studying their food habits in connection with the boll 

 weevil investigation and the whole number collected during his Texas stay 

 would not amount to as much in the sum total as the vandal-like work of the aver- 

 age small boy during the summer season. 



The birds of Texas, or at least the majority of them, are on the rapid road to 

 extermination, the result of the clearing up of waste lands, the cutting down of 

 pine forests, the draining of swamps and lagoons, and the brutality of those inhuman 

 beasts in the guise of men who annually get the "blood lust" and go forth to slay for 

 gain or so-called sport. To the true sportsman, lover of the woods and fields, who 



