BIRDS OF THE REGION 147 



rabbits, wood rats, pocket gophers, kangaroo rats, and 

 numerous species of mice, is of vital importance in an 

 arid region devoted to agriculture and grazing, and if 

 removed would necessitate great expense in artificial 

 control of rodent pests. If the farmers and ranchmen 

 realized how useful the hawks and owls are to them, 

 fewer of the dead birds would be seen lying along the 

 roadsides, victims of thoughtless "gun toters.' 



The yellow-billed cuckoos are found in the valley, 

 where their function of keeping the trees free from 

 caterpillars is generally appreciated. The road-runner 

 occurs over the valleys and hills, where the open 

 country gives free scope to its propensity for speeding 

 and provides abundance of game in the form of lizards, 

 snakes, grasshoppers, and other large insects. These 

 birds were often seen about the entrance of the great 

 cavern, and their characteristic stick nests were recog- 

 nized in the blue-thorn and buckeye bushes down in 

 the deep pit of the west entrance, as well as in some of 

 the tall yuccas out on the ridges and along the bottom 

 of the canyons. Occasionally one of these droll, long- 

 tailed birds was seen close to the cave buildings, and 

 on several occasions one came and peered into my 

 cabin door, snapping its bill and making its characteris- 

 tic low koo note. Late in April their louder notes were 

 often heard from the sides of the gulches, where the 

 birds were evidently searching for new nesting sites. 



The woodpeckers of the cave region are naturally 

 few in number of species, although the little spotted 

 cactus woodpeckers are fairly common and often seen 

 along the roads, tapping on dry stalks of sotol, lechu- 



