22 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN 



rats get most of the nuts, but other rodents take a part 

 of each year's crop. 



Hackberries are here more often bushes than trees, 

 but in the canyons some grow to respectable size. Both 

 large and small trees are often loaded with tiny, sweet- 

 coated nutlets, greatly enjoyed by rodents and birds, 

 and when well pulverized, shells and all, make a rich, 

 sugary loaf of nut-bread. 



Native mulberries reach small tree proportions in 

 moist and fertile canyons, but in the open are mere 

 bushes. 



The Mexican buckeye, growing in the canyons, and 

 especially in the mouths of the large caves, is either a 

 small tree or large shrub, bearing dense sprays of 

 beautiful pink flowers in early April. 



The scrubby little junipers which form a conspicuous 

 part of the vegetation of the hillsides, in wide bunches 

 four to six feet high, are kept down by wood cutters 

 and seekers for fence posts, and by browsing goats, so 

 they rarely attain tree size. They yield bushels of 

 sweet berries eagerly sought by goats, as well as by 

 coyotes, foxes, and a host of other hungry mammals and 

 birds. They furnish the dominant evergreen cover of 

 the rugged limestone ridges and have a value far beyond 

 that indicated by their humble appearance. 



A few small trees of the silky-leaved mountain juniper 

 are found over the ridges a little higher up, and the 

 beautiful blue-leaved, round-topped, checker-barked 

 juniper reaches down almost to the cave. 



The little nut pines or pinyon trees show along the 

 crest of the next higher ridge west of the cavern, and 



