218 .THE CONDOR VoL XVIII Spanish stock which has nearly run out has gone to horns, in southern Texas. A ground. squirrel was seen on our way north, and in one place a red coyote ran across the road ahead of us turning to look back over his shoulder. On the way north, among the choice southern birds seen were Black- crested Titmice, the exquisitely tinted pink and gray Pyrrhuloxia, a pair of tiny Verdins about one of their big globular nests, l?ed-eyed Cowbirds sitting on the roadside fences, a White-tailed Kite on a bush in a salt flat, and a small flock of the Black-bellied Tree Ducks standing high on their long legs on small tufts in a pond surrounded by pink water lilies; while on a cool looking pond over whose shimmering water dragon flies were wavering, the diminutive bluish gray l?exican Grebe, found only between southern Texas and Panama was seen swimming about, appropriately enough, among blue and white water lilies. A number of nests were found in passing. On l?Iay 4, eggs were .seen in a White-winged Dove's nest, and young in a Jackdaw's nest; on May 5 a SeImett Oriole's nest with four eggs was found in a yucca, a remarkable basket shaped nest hung by a handle from the bayonets of the yucca. The same day a l?Iockingbird's nest with four eggs was found in a blooming cactus, a Cara- cara's nest was .discovered in the' top of a small round oak with fuzzy-headed nestlings, and in a huisache a family of half grown Cardinals were being fed; and on May 6, a Desert Sparrow's nest was found in a low bush with large feathered young. While the bulk of migration had passed, on l?Iay 6, two Whooping Cranes were seen going through their maneuvers in the sky; on May 8 a Wilson Phalarope, a beauty in full breeding plumage, was watched swimming about on a flood water pond; on l?Iay 9, a flock of two or three hundred Dickcissels was seen on the fences; on l?Iay 10 a large flock of Mourning Doves were passed on a fence; a Black Tern was seen over a lake,.and several species of Sand- pipers on a narrow strip of pond; besides a few other northerners seen on different days, among them a few Ducks, Thrushes, and Warblers, notably the Black-throated Green, the BlackburnJan, and Redstart on May 11,' at Petranilla Creek. The prairie flowers as we went north also underwent a remarkable change. Although we made the whole trip of about three hundred and sixty miles from Corpus Christi to Brownsville and return in seventeen days, not only had the great waves of migration passed north but in places the prairie carpet had changed completely during the interval. An entire set of social plants had gone out of bloom and been replaced by others. In one section we were nearly a day w. ith a newly laid carpet of yellow tar weed that gave a softly tinted picture, the yellow green floor having a wall of dull green mesquite and a roof of soft blue sky. Between Petranilla Creek and Corpus Christi where, on April 24, the ground had been pink with evening primroses, on May 11 it was covered with white mint as far as the eye could see in all directions. The change was so complete that it was positively startling. But one gets to expect big things of the prairie--waves of flowers, passing throngs of birds, overhead the starry host of heaven, and round about the encompassing clouds. One moonlight night we camped among huisache trees and slept on a bed of daisies, and after the moon set the sky grew fuller and fuller of stars till one could but marvel at their myriad host. Silent night! What infinite peace Nature offers her children ! On one of our days when there
