Sept, 1916 MEETING SPRING HALi? WAY 185 ors and songs. An Indigo Bird back from its winter in Mexico or Central Am- erica, and our first Cuckoo, back from South America, were found here, and after listening to the voice of a Chat we caught sight of its brilliant yellow breast in the mesquite. A Wren, having probably wintered near home, was already beginning to build, being seen carrying a stick up through a streamer of moss. Hearing a bright pleasing song that resembled the Indigo Bunting's, I followed it up till, on a bare tree top in the sun I diseovered--a Nonpareil, the familiar many colored cage bird! A Red-bellied Woodpecker came flying in to the bridge over the creek, but seeing us withdrew to watch us from around a corner. Besides these, there were Mockingbirds and a family of Harris Hawks, the handsome southerners. Their nest, a heavy platform of sticks in the top of a moss-draped hackberry, was littered with fur and bones, a dozen wood rat skulls among the number. The large well leathered nestlings had the same handsome rulous patches that distinguish the parents. The guardian of the nest, perhaps made unduly anxious by our presence, stood for a long time on the bare top of a tree that commanded the situation, and like a preoccupied philosopher ignored the hysterical attacks of a Mocker, doubt- less another parent merely expressing his responsibility in terms of his own nervous temperament. After Petranilla Creek, our next objective point was King's Ranch, fifty miles west of Corpus Christi, across broad stretches of flat blooming prairie, with successive bands of pink and white primroses. Where there were no fences the migrating Doves and white-winged Lark Buntings perched on the cactus pads, edging gingerly along as if fully mindful of the sharp spines. Once in passing we caught a delightful wave of song from the white wings. Fences were so rare that they were taken advantage of, and one corral that we passed was occupied by hundreds of Mourning Doves as close as beads on a string. At San Fernando Creek a herd of range cattle reminded our Texas camp man that in a dry time thousands of cattle had been saved by having the spines burned off the cactus so that it could be fed to them. The old man warned us when looking for birds to 'watch out' for rattlesnakes, for he said in such hot weather the snakes stayed in the shade in the day time. As they were the large diamond l?aeks of Texas and Florida whose long fangs put a dangerous amount of poison intb the.eireulation, his warning had some point. At San Fernando Creek new flowers came in, a magenta Mexican poppy, a small mes- quite with fragrant blossoms, and a bright red flowered cactus, followed later by blue-bonnets. The heat that made the cactus bloom also produced our first mirage. The spring migrants had need to hurry, but besides the white wings we noted a .tardy Ovenbird, a Black-throated Green Warbler, and a Clay-col- ored Sparrow, on this, the twenty-fifth day of April. Our second night's camp was on King's Ranch, one of the largest cattle ranches of Texas, where we met the Brownsville and Alice stage road and turned south across the rich stock range. The cattle king was at that time a cattle queen who spent her winters in New York, leaving her superintendent in charge. At his advice we camped at Santa Gertrude, as two windmills and their water tanks were called. A vivid green circle enclosed by mesquites branching to the ground with abundant water made indeed a earnping place to commemorate a saint. Quail, a pair of Cardinals, and a pair of Thrashers carrying food showed their appreciation of ' the tanks, which were evidently well known in the region. As we had been warned regarding fellow travelers
