266 MULE-HUNTING EXPEDITION. 



seeds, grass, fruit, and, when they can get no- 

 thing else, they devour each other. I frequently 

 got off my horse to see what a large mob 

 of crickets were about. They had draped 



I ' OG 



down, perhaps, two or three others, and were 

 one and all deliberately tearing them to 

 pieces. If they meet head to head, they rush 

 at each other and butt like rams, but, backing 

 against each other, they lash out their hind-legs 

 and kick like horses. What becomes of them 

 when they die I cannot imagine; the entire at- 

 mosphere for miles must become pestilential. I 

 suppose, from their coming in such vast numbers 

 every fourth year, that the larvas must take that 

 time ere they assume the perfect shape. 



May 1 6 th. The Californian quail, which I found 

 most plentiful along the course of the Sacramento, 

 ceases at the edge of this great sandy desert ; it 

 appears to be the limit to its northern range. 

 I note a singular instance, how curiously and 

 readily birds alter their usual habits under dif- 

 ficulties, in the nesting of Bullock's Oriole. A 

 solitary oak stood by the little patch of water, a 

 spring that oozed, rather than bubbled, through 

 the sandy soil where my camp stood ; it was the 

 only water within many miles, and the only tree 

 too; every available branch and spray had one 



