240 THE STORY OF A BIRD LOVER 



arid mesas and desert plains are decked with a 

 coat of verdure. Then, on the lower deserts the 

 California poppy blooms in great luxuriance, so 

 that the country, viewed from some little eleva- 

 tion, presents a vast prospect covered with a 

 golden crop, — a field of cloth of gold, for the 

 flowers are not dissociated or in groups, but are 

 distributed evenly over the entire area. 



The rainfall is never of long duration, at most 

 not more than four or five hours, and it occurs 

 generally at night. It comes more in the form 

 of a showery day or night, and such a thing as a 

 real rainy day I have never seen in this part of 

 Arizona. By the last of March the rapid evapo- 

 ration has dried the surface again, and the power- 

 ful sunshine soon burns and browns the verdure, 

 so that by the middle of April or the first of May 

 the only evidence of the luxuriant vegetable 

 growth that had carpeted the ground is to be 

 found in the dried grasses and flowers which 

 have gone to seed. The whole surface is now 

 quite as brown, bare-looking, and more arid than 

 in mid- winter. Late in June, and for part of 

 July, there is a shorter rain period, which gen- 

 erally occurs annually, but in some seasons is 

 very slight. This rainy season may last for three 

 or four weeks, and is characterized by the same 

 succession of showers, of even shorter duration 

 than those that occur in the late winter months. 



