Page:Notes on the Ornithology of Southern Texas.djvu/7

122 A common resident about Fort Brown, but fifty or sixty miles higher up the river it becomes less abundant. Few birds have a greater variety of notes than this species, and I have frequently been led by a strange song through dense chaparral only to find this little bird perched upon the topmost twig of an amargosa bush apparently enjoying my disappointment. Their principal song is much like that of the Song Sparrow, but sweeter. It probably raises three broods, as I have seen it leading fully fledged young as early as March 27. Its nests are placed in a variety of situations. I have found them in an old Woodpecker's nest, placed between three or four joints of the prickly pear, forming a bulky structure, and among the twigs of various dense thorny bushes. A set of six eggs, now before me, average .68 × .50. I have no eggs of var. bewicki at hand with which to compare them. A second set of five, taken on the 2d of May from a nest among the joints of a cactus, are smaller than the preceding, averaging .62 × .50; the markings are much fainter and finer, and the two sets are quite different in appearance. Three other sets taken subsequently vary greatly in size and markings. In some, the latter are very fine and inconspicuous; in others, there are heavy markings of reddish and lilac. Thirty eggs average .63 by .45, the extremes being .70 by .52 and .60 by .46.

—The eggs of T. leucogaster, as compared with those of bewicki and spilurus, exhibit many points in common, and do not vary more than the eggs of the same species are often found to differ. Nine eggs of the Texan form, leucogaster, are, in size, a trifle the largest, and all of them are much more deeply marked with larger and more confluent blotches of reddish-brown. In size, six eggs of bewicki, from Mount Carmel, Ill., collected by Mr. Ridgway, are not quite equal to leucogaster and a little less strongly marked, the spots being nowhere confluent. Five eggs of spilurus from California are still less in size, and their markings are smaller, fewer, and of a lighter color, one being of an almost immaculate white.—T. M. B.

14. Troglodytes aëdon, Vieill.

Rather uncommon during the winter months.

15. Troglodytes aedon var. parkmanni, Aud.

A single specimen of this variety was taken in the autumn of 1877.

16. Telmatodytes palustris, (Wils.)

One obtained December 16, 1876.

17. Anthus ludovicianus, (Gmel.)

Very abundant from October to March. I have seen a few as late as April 28.—( Ibis, 1865, 476.)

18. Mniotilta varia, (Linn.)

Common during the migrations; a good many pass the winter.—(, Ibis, 1865, 476.)