July, 1916 
MEETING SPRING HALF WAY 
155 
through a variety of amusing antics and raising their black triangular sails 
over their backs. Rising from the lake flocks of Sandpipers would go whirl- 
ing away dark before us, at a turn glancing white against the blue sky. 
Not far from Tule Lake, at Priour’s Ranch, the home of an old collector, 
specimens of rare southern birds were to be seen, among them skins of the 
Black Skimmer, Roseate Spoonbill, and most remarkable of all, Mexican par- 
rots said to have been taken near Corpus Christi when severe southern winds 
were blowing up from below the boundary line. A barrel of wild cat and 
coyote skins was shown us and the skulls were seen lying around in the corners 
of the workshop. Live Brant of different species were in hen coops in the 
yard, and a small mother Tree Duck driven away by a Turkey whose society 
she had enjoyed was said to be dividing her time between the barnyard and 
the kitchen. 
Beyond the ranch we were pleased to find eight Roadrunners, so quaint 
and curious that they are to other birds what the cactus is to garden plants. 
In some places along the way we saw them standing up on fence posts, crested 
heads and long necks raised and long tails flipped up enquiringly, for all the 
road to see. Here they were so tame they would not take the trouble to get out 
of sight. A few Snowy Egrets, Poorwills, small moth-like Bullbats, and Mexi- 
can Eagles added to the southern feeling. Picturesque Mexicans with two- 
wheeled mule carts carrying women with black rebozas over their heads, and 
men with peaked hats, together with pole houses thatched with cattails, reeds, 
or marsh grass, accented the Mexican flora and fauna. 
The shore line from Corpus Christi Bay south afforded many novel sights. 
A line of pasture fence posts that extended thirty or forty rods out into the 
shallow water of the bay, were favorite perches of a variety of water birds. 
Three Cormorants, a Great Blue Heron, and two Brown Pelicans made up the 
row one day, the Pelicans making droll figures like china toys with heads erect 
and chins drawn in. Formerly, we were told, a thousand Pelicans nested on a 
small island twelve miles from Corpus Christi, but the colony had been entirely 
broken up. Only about half a dozen of the interesting birds were seen when 
we were there. In flight, with their big bills on their pouches, their great 
flapping wings and short tails, they were droll figures indeed, suggesting wise 
feathered magicians. Deserted nests of Great Blue Herons, big saucers of twigs 
set on bush tops, were seen, and on a low grass-covered island the Herons them- 
selves were found standing. Along the shore were seen Sandpipers, Plovers, 
Willets, Yellow-legs, Stilts, Curlew, Turnstones, Gulls, and Terns, together with 
Kingbirds, Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Horned Larks, and Pipits — along the 
shore of the Gulf of Mexico, as I liked to say to myself. An historic spot below 
us made it seem more real, for here during the Mexican war one side buried a 
ship-load of flour and the other side on discovering it, dug it up ! Sometimes 
the picture from the shore of the gulf was a monochrome, a gray sky over gray 
water touched with life by white caps blown in by the wind. On moonlight 
nights when the yellow globe filled all the sky with light down to the level 
prairie horizon, giving a wonderful effect of wide illumination, the harbor 
was especially beautiful and peaceful, with the silvery gleam of the moon on 
the water, and the soft lapping of waves along the shore. 
{To be continued) 
