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186 THE CONDOR Vol. XVIII near the Mexican border, when a.party of dusky faced men rode in and pro- ceeded to camp on the opposite side of our enclosure, I made sure that our fire- arms were fully in evidence and valorously determined ?to protect the camp from midnight Mexican daggers ! Terrors of the night ! 'The first Mexican to cross our camp ground, well after sunrise, was a mild mannered lad with a piece of drawn work to exchange for coffee and sugar for his breakfast! Nev- ertheless, on leaving the windmills we had to abandon the Alice and Browns- ville stage road we had been enjoying, as, beyond that point, the stage drivers locked the gates behind them to prevent horse thieves crossing private pas- tures. Another day passed in a world of flowers, a day of moving pictures, of beautiful and interesting forms of vegetation and bird life. More circles of pink evening primroses were surrounded by green mesquites, and a grove of low huisache more filmy and delicate even than the mesquite, was carpeted with Coreopsis as yellow as buttercups. Then, in striking contrast, came a thicket of thorn brush with cactus coming into bloom, and beyond a carpet of the curious Indian wheat, a whitish plantain that grows extensively in the arid region, and whose miniature grain the pocket mice carry home in their pouches. Big bare circles around peaked ant hills with bare trails leading to them through the vegetation were characteristic and numerous. At a turn of the road there appeared a lake set in a cool dark green tule frame. A gleaming white spot on its edge, through the glass proved a red- breasted Shoveller, and on a tongue of the lake stood a Solitary Sandpiper and a Plover with her young, while a Greater Yellow-legs, followed by its miniature a Lesser Yellow-legs, walked along the shore, mirrored in the water. One shal- low strip of pond that we passed was covered with little shore birds running about and scolding at each other in double. After passing acres of white mint we came to one solitary scarlet painted- cup, so gratefully brilliant after the white that its single flower caught the eye and held it charmed. Beyond, the pink Erythraea began increasing and swelled in numbers till it reached its height. Following the Erythraea came an unus- ual field of blended colors. In the vivid green grass was a stand of pink phlox and a level higher, thinly but uniformly scattered through it, a stand of some bright yellow flower. While the color combination seems crude and in- harmonious, curiously enough the effect of the yellow was merely to lighten the pink, to illuminate the field in a rare and surprising manner. After this, as if Nature would do nothing to weaken such an effect, there followed miles of white daisies. Before sundown we passed our next landmark, Santa Rosa .Ranch---the names marking the road between Corpus Christi and Brownsville are those of ranches, windmills, or motts--and after driving up to the hubs through freshet lakes we camped for the night between two runs, much to the dissatisfaction of the old Texas camp man who said that he had been caught that way in win- ter, camping beside a dry wash and having to stand up to his knees in water half the night! The only excitements of the night, however, proved to' be the passing of birds in the darkness, the fine chip of small migrants, the squawk of Black-crowned Night Herons, and low over us the thrilling swishing of heavy wings, probably those of Wild Turkeys. As the night had been dry, Mr. Bailey found pocket mice and kangaroo rats in his traps, for we had now entered the sand belt that supplies homes for these small burrowing animals