NATURE AT CORONADO liEACH. 



45 



surroundings which it mulched. We 

 felt compelled to do violence to the 

 evident wishes of this strange creature 

 by investigating it, when it proved to 

 be a toad resembling a lizard thatched 

 with dry chips and furnished with 

 sticks for horns. 



From toads to cats is a far cry, yet 

 when we encountered a cat with a 

 short, crooked tail on the streets of 

 Coronado, we promptly accepted his 

 owner's offer to hold him while we 

 took his picture, for a rabbit-tailed cat 

 struck us as an uncommon object. 

 This cat is descended from a line of 

 ancestors with similar caudal append- 



"A LONG CURVED ROW OF LITTLE 

 PROJECTIONS" 



Most interesting among shells are 

 the Pholas or "angels'-wings" of which 

 a number of species are found on the 

 Atlantic Coast and one on this beach. 

 The sculpturing, like pinions, on these 

 wdiite, winged-shaped shells is quite 

 suggestive. A furrow divides the 

 valve into two areas, only the upper, 

 or pointed one, being sculptured. 

 Pholas is characterized by a reflex 

 curve on the upper margin of the valve 

 and by a long, rib-like tooth inside 

 which curves out almost to the center 

 of the valve. 



In spite of our portrait attachment 

 the kodak did not bring out clearly 

 these details, but the horned toad that 

 slipped unawares into the foreground 

 while waiting his turn to have his 

 "picter took" furnishes a suggestive 

 contrast to "angels'-wings." As for 

 the cribbage board, it is not an object 

 in commonplace nor uncommonplace 

 nature but serving a useful purpose as 

 a pedestal. 



The horned toad is a most inter- 

 esting and intelligent little creature. 

 Our first encounter with him was on 

 a dusty path bordered with vegetation 

 brown and sere. Of a sudden a clus- 

 ter of dry twigs proceeded to peram- 

 bulate across the path in a manner 

 wdiich so astonished us that we stood 

 still. Whereupon the bunch of dry 

 grass also stood still, having reached 



ages. 



This is not a bird article, Mr. Editor, 

 but an account of nature life on Coron- 

 ado Beach would be incomplete with 

 no mention of the many interesting 

 varieties of sea birds. The sands are 

 ploughed in spots by the long, sickle- 

 shaped bills of the curlews ; over the 

 brown masses of kelp trip the black 

 turnstones, probing with their shovel- 

 shaped bills for food ; flocks of sand- 

 erlings, their tiny feet flying with a 

 precision suggestive of mechanical 

 tovs, chase the tide and run back in a 





THE GULLS AND TERNS ARE SOARING 

 AND DIVING" 



