LUCK ON THE PRAIRIE 183 



ral country not favoring birds of the crow-jay 

 tribe,! — an^ I remarked it with pleasure. And 

 then, remembering something I had lately read 

 of Arizona, I thought, " But is it a crow, after 

 all? Isn't it one of the white-necked ravens 

 that are set down as so common and familiar in 

 this part of the world?" And, in fact, it was; 

 for the next moment it began calling in a voice 

 that put the possibility of its being a common 

 American crow, the only one that coidd possibly 

 be met with in aU this region, quite out of the 

 account. Another new bird ! The third within 

 half an hour ! Surely this was better than get- 

 ting into El Paso on schedule time. Let El 

 Paso wait. It would probably last the day out. 

 But the story was not yet done, for after a lit- 

 tle the meadow larks, of which there were many 

 in the fields (with large flocks of homed larks, 

 also), began singing. I was disappointed in the 

 song, of the beauty of which I had formed the 

 most exalted expectations, but consoled myself 

 with believing that the birds were not Western 

 meadow larks proper, but the Texan sub-species ; 

 othei^se I must conclude that their voices were 



1 I could hardly telieve it anything hut an accidental omis- 

 aion when I noticed the total ahsence of jays, crows, and ra- 

 vens from Mr. Attwater's list of the hirds of San Antonio and 

 vicinity. See The Auk, Tol. ix, p. 229. 



