Texas Nature Observations and Reminiscenses Page: 86

86 TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES.

dense brush and ravines along
the newly fenced hilly region, but
ultimately my friend. recognized
the white objects on the place
we had marked. We approached
very cautiously to see if the old
bullbat was still there, and were
disappointed for a while at least.
There was no trace of the old bull-
bat on that spot, but further off
one was seen flying close to the
ground among the mesquite trees.
On closer inspection of the place,
where we had seen the eggs seven
days previous, I noticed several
eggshells lying around, this, of
course, led us to search around
for the new offspring (my friend
suggesting shortly before that
some ground squirrel or other ro-
dent or a snake may have disposed
of the two eggs.) After quite a
little while, my friend all at once
exclaimed: "Here they are, Doc-
tor"! and sure enough, the two
little baby bullbats were crouch-
ing on the ground under a more
shady acacia brush close by, and
here also I took the view of them
seen above.

Both were of about the same
size, smalleer than a neubori
chick, and of a slight yellowish-
white color, with a few gray spots
and strips along the back part of
their fuzzy body. Though small
they were a lively lot, and both
quickly tried to escape-running
as fast as a pair of baby quail
under the shady and rocky brush.
After focusing the spot of en-
counter, and after placing some
of the eggshells close by the little
fellows, a short time view was
taken with slightly reverted came-
ra. From general apnearances it
seems both of the young birds
were only two1 or three days old.
Gradually the body feathers as-
sume more of a light brown color,
and the birds grow very rapidly,
so that in a week or two theyare
less easy to capture and photo-
graph. After making it as comfort-
able as possible for the little bird
kids, we left them under the shady
place, which as stated was covered
all around with the peculiar dark
(India) red fragments of rock
scattered around these hilly re-
gions.

The Cliffswallow's Mud Nest

I herein present to my readers a
view of the cliff swallow clinging to
its oval shaped nest, and also a
second rare view of the Texas cliff
swallow's mud nests, with one
of the nests exposing the eggs.
The photo was prepared after
considerable difficulty in getting
to the nests, for reason of the steep
rock precipices on which they
were attached-with hundreds of
a similar kind. Such nests have
been cursorily alluded to in others
of my reminiscences of Texas
nature-objects; t h e s e w e r e
reproduced during an outing years
ago in West Medina County where
they are encountered in large
numbers along the high rock preci-

pices and nearly always along
and above some rivulet, and always
some ten to twenty and more
feet above water-if such is present
They plaster their building material
-some soft clay in much the same
manner as does the mud dauber
wasp against rough walls of rocks,
and always high enough to protect
them from their many enemies;
and during breeding time myriads
of the small swallows or martins
can be seen building their nest
amidst a fearful noise they make
when being disturbed. Swarms
of them continually circle again
and again and emit a pecu-
liar screeching noise whilst others
take a rest on their large mud