52 THE WILSON QUARTERLY. 



start and then see how few spines I can take off and make 

 the ascent. Found I could get over and around many of 

 them, but several times before I got down again I wished I 

 had taken off just a few more. While cutting into a wood- 

 pecker's hole a Pigmy Owl flew from a hole higher up ; so I 

 had to go to that, but found nothing for my trouble. Work- 

 ing nearer the river, among the mesquite trees, I get a few 

 quail and shoot a Chaparral Cock from the wagon, with dust 

 shot. I next took a rather long shot at a Ferruginous Rough- 

 leg. Two or three feathers floated out in the air in one direc- 

 tion and the balance went off in n Ijod \ in another. A Crissal 

 Thrasher soon tried to fl} ' d in front of us. A 



shot filled the air with featiiei-.-.; ; out the bird kept on, finally 

 falling in some bushes eighty yards away, where we found 

 him after a long search. »» 



Then I saw several Abert's Towhecii and got two of them. 

 My next find was not in the lino of ornithology, but was 

 what is called a Gila Monster — ( ' largest of Ameri- 



can lizards, though perhaps not liu^r iiiough for the name. 

 It is also known as Gila Horror, and the name "fits them like 

 a glove." They are eighteen to twenty inches long, stocky, 

 thick-set,. heavy built fellows, beautifully colored in black 

 and orange, and are as venomous* as rattlesnakes, and twice 

 as ugly. They usually run away if they can, but stop 

 them and tantalize them a littl'e and they act like an en- 

 raged cat. Push a stick towards them and they will bite 

 it fiercely, and after getting their teeth well into it, will 

 ■'roll over" like a trained dog, so as to make the teeth tear 

 and lacerate the wound. I tried " dust "' on this one at 

 twenty feet, but he wore a coat of mail, and it only 

 stunned him. I supposed he was dead, and came near be- 

 ing bitten, as I went to pick him up by the tail. At the 

 first touch he "changed ends" so quick I could scarcely 

 see the motion, and it was no part of a second till the end 

 of his nose was just where the tip of the tail had been. I 

 had him repeat the performance several times, but with 

 more caution. I skinned him that evening, and found it 

 the slowest job of the kind I ever did, for the strong, wiry 



* It has been discovered recently that the Gila Monster has no poison 

 fangs. — Pub. 



