Page:Condor18(4).djvu/10

 152 TH] CONDOR Vol. XVII1 white flower spikes of the yucca, the purple clusters of the wistaria, the green bunches of Baptisia and discs of mistletoe, scarlet painted cups and fields of solid yellow and purple gave pleasing diversity as the train passed through their varied habitats. But the Vivid green of spring to us from the brown north was perhaps the dominating pleasure of the journey, greatest near the close of the day when the slanting yellow light intensified the green of a meadow, made an oak fairly glow beside a dark juniper, and gave an exquisitely delicate green to an acre of mesquite whose finely cut leaves--most interesting fact in the study of the light relations of plants--lets the sun shine through so that the ground beneath bears a carpet of flowers. At Austin, where we saw baled cotton in the depot, the birds were a strik- ing mixture of northern, southern, eastern, and western species. We were greeted by the song of the Canyon Wren! Out of place as it seemed in the city, the clear, pure notes rang out as bravely as in a canyon, and the little canyon dweller might easily have strayed over from congenial ground in the first escarpment of the lower Staked Plains, three miles to the westward. Sev- eral of the birds were seen in the city. One that stood on a chimney top, its long bill, rounded back, and hanging tail silhouetted against the sky, sang loudly, swaying from side to side till a lordly Mockingbird flew over and calmly appropriated its perch. Mockingbirds were everywhere, singing with equal abandon from the chimney above us or the fruit trees close beside us. And well' might such southerners feel at home, for among the flowers and trees of the city were numbered yucca, tamarisk, banana, fig, and pride of India. From one of the berry-bearing pride of India trees rose a flock of the cosmo- politan Cedar Waxwings, but they may have stopped for the berries of the mis- tletoe, also borne by the little tree. The more northern Turkey Vulture was in the sky with its southern relative the short-tailed Black Vulture, whose ser- vices as scavenger were evidently appreciated by the inhabitants, for when it was suggested that one suspected of eating a snake should be shot to settle the matter, the. citizen addressed promptly replied, "You'd have the corporation after you if you did!" Purple Martins were already back from Brazil, their loud twitterings being continually in our ears. Less traveled Western Lark Sparrows were among the commonest birds of the city, singing loudly from the trees of the yards and streets, and a resident Cardinal flew into a bare tree only a few feet from us on the grounds of the State University. These grounds presented a picture long to be remembered, for they were solid acres of blue-bonnets, low, deep blue lupins, among the choicest of the family, that made the air rich with their hyacinthine fragrance. In some fields the blue was toned to an exquisite color scheme by a mixture of pink verbena and vivid pink phlox outdoing their garden cousins in luxuriance. The lupins reached out to the edge of the big spreading live oaks, trees that interested us greatly as they bore a form of the so-called Spanish moss (Tllandsa ecur- vata), that instead of hanging in long veils grows in short tufts on the branches. As we examined it, a herd of Jerseys grazed under the trees with pleasantly jangling bells whose leisurely tinkling harmonized with the familiar Pe-ter, Pe-ter, Pe-ter, of the Tufted Titmouse which hunted among the branches, and the soft cooing of Mourning Doves which flew around through the trees with musically whistling wings. On the University grounds one of the everyday birds was that theatrical