:::::l"::*; TWO BIRD-LOVERS IN MEXICO jgEC."".:::: 



for our comparing these birds to batrachians. These, 

 Hke so many other birds in this country, were always 

 seen in pairs. 



Tropical foliage cannot endure the heat of the sun 

 on these dry, sloping arroyo walls, and if w^e climbed 

 to the top, we passed only mesquite and cactus — the 

 broad-leafed nopal and the stately organ, or candel- 

 abra cactus. The latter sometimes grow to a great 

 height, symmetrical and dignified, the deep-ribbed 

 spiny branches each pointing straight upward, with no 

 foliage to flutter, no leaves to fall. The wind makes no 

 murmuring, no sighing, among these strange growths. 

 The thick stems lay up a great store of moisture in 

 their spongy cells, not for a " rainy day," but for a 

 rainless one, for the months when not a drop falls. 

 Here was really a little desert of a few acres' extent, 

 set in the midst of tropical greenness ; for below, the 

 springs kept the vegetation ever luxuriant. 



Woodpeckers and other birds had bored their round 

 holes in the cactus branches, and they doubtless nested 

 there later in the year. Beneath them the Roadrunners 

 loved to run and leap and watch for lizards ; here also 

 the great lazy Iguanas had dug deep burrows in the 

 sandy soil. Once I surprised and seized by the tail 

 a big fellow, basking in a clump of tall grass, where 

 he could not observe my approach. I felt as if I had 

 grasped a prickly, animated, steel spring, and my 

 strength was almost gone, when there was a sudden 



«4 230 #«• 



