186 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XVIII 
near the Mexican border, when a party of dusky faced men rode in and pro- 
ceeded to camp on the opposite side of our enclosure, I made sure that our fire- 
arms were fully in evidence and valorously determined to protect the camp 
from midnight Mexican daggers ! Terrors of the night ! The first Mexican to 
cross our camp ground, well after sunrise, was a mild mannered lad with a 
piece of drawn work to exchange for coffee and sugar for his breakfast ! Nev- 
ertheless, on leaving the windmills we had to abandon the Alice and Browns- 
ville stage road we had been enjoying, as, beyond that point, the stage drivers 
locked the gates behind them to prevent horse thieves crossing private pas- 
tures. 
Another day passed in a world of flowers, a day of moving pictures, of 
beautiful and interesting forms of vegetation and bird life. More circles of 
pink evening primroses were surrounded by green mesquites, and a grove of 
low huisache more filmy and delicate even than the mesquite, was carpeted 
with Coreopsis as yellow as buttercups. Then, in striking contrast, came a 
thicket of thorn brush with cactus coming into bloom, and beyond a carpet of 
the curious Indian wheat, a whitish plantain that grows extensively in the arid 
region, and whose miniature grain the pocket mice carry home in their pouches. 
Big bare circles around peaked ant hills with bare trails leading to them 
through the vegetation were characteristic and numerous. 
At a turn of the road there appeared a lake set in a cool dark green tule 
frame. A gleaming white spot on its edge, through the glass proved a red- 
breasted Shoveller, and on a tongue of the lake stood a Solitary Sandpiper and 
a Plover with her young, while a Greater Yellow-legs, followed by its miniature 
a Lesser Yellow-legs, walked along the shore, mirrored in the water. One shal- 
low strip of pond that we passed was covered with little shore birds running 
about and scolding at each other in double. 
After passing acres of white mint we came to one solitary scarlet painted- 
cup, so gratefully brilliant after the white that its single flower caught the eye 
and held it charmed. Beyond, the pink Erythraea began increasing and swelled 
in numbers till it reached its height. Following the Erythraea came an unus- 
ual field of blended colors. In the vivid green grass Avas a stand of pink 
phlox and a level higher, thinly but uniformly scattered through it, a stand of 
some bright yelloAV flower. While the color combination seems crude and in- 
harmonious, curiously enough the effect of the yellow was merely to lighten 
the pink, to illuminate the field in a rare and surprising manner. After this, 
as if Nature Avould do nothing to weaken such an effect, there followed miles 
of white daisies. 
Before sundown we passed our next landmark, Santa Rosa Ranch — the 
names marking the road betAveen Corpus Christi and Brownsville are those of 
ranches, windmills, or motts — and after driving up to the hubs through freshet 
lakes Ave camped for the night betAveen tAvo runs, much to the dissatisfaction 
of the old Texas camp man Avho said that he had been caught that Avav in Avin- 
ter, camping beside a dry Avash and having to stand up to his knees in Avater 
half the night ! The only excitements of the night, however, proved to be the 
passing of birds in the darkness, the fine chip of small migrants, the squaivk 
of Black-croAvned Night Herons, and Ioav over us the thrilling swishing of 
heavy Avings, probably those of Wild Turkeys. As the night had been dry, 
Mr. Bailey found pocket mice and kangaroo rats in his traps, for Ave had iioav 
entered the sand belt that supplies homes for these small burroAving animals 
