BIRD LIFE OF THE PAPAGO SAGUARO NATIONAL MONUMENT 

 CONTRASTED WITH THAT OF THE ADJOINING CULTIVATED 

 REGIONS. 



The bird student contemplating a trip over the Apache Trail 

 should plan to spend several days in the region about Phoenix and 

 Tempe, for here better than anywhere else in the State can be con- 

 trasted the faunas of the desert and of the irrigated farm land, side 

 by side. 



For a study of desert birds no more accessible place could be found 

 than the Papago Saguaro National Monument, on the highway be- 

 tween Phoenix and Tempe. This is a tract of approximately 2,000 

 acres of desert land, about 9 miles east of Phoenix and 3 miles from 

 Tempe. It is a rolling mesa, of gravelly or rocky soil, traversed by a 

 ridge of hills, rising 200 or 300 feet above the level of the surrounding 

 desert. The plant growth is typical sparse desert vegetation,--sh\as 

 occurs over vast stretches of southern Arizona. (Giant cactus/is 

 evenly, though not thickly, distributed-^veFthe whole~~area. Every- 

 where there aye clumps of "^nolla " cactus, lo/ally known as " jump- 

 ing cactus,'^* peculiarly diabbiicaLs^pt'Wtrose thorns penetrate-afc-the* 

 Such. The local name is derived from the ease with which 

 sections break off and adhere to whatever brushes against them, no 

 matter how lightly; the thorny joints give the impressJolTofactuali] 

 leaping at J&e-passey . Here and there are le 



md in the sandy washes thickets 

 *The most generally prevalent plant Ts({he creosote 

 rounded bushes of dark green hue, scattered 

 formly over even the most unprepossessing sections. Many 

 gravelly ridges are grown up with this plant to the exclusion of prac- 

 tically everything else. Along the canal which crossesj;he Monument, 

 seepage of water has produced limited growths of arrow weedyand 



[nthe rocky hills of the central ridge numerous caves have been 

 worn by the elements, in one place an opening extending clear through 

 the hill. This aperture, known locally as " Hole-in-the-rock," is about 

 15 feet high and 25 feet long, with a broad approach at either side. 

 It is used as a picnic ground by the people of Phoenix and Tempe. 



The bird life of the Papago Saguaro Monument is that of the desert 

 purely, and as such must not be judged by the same standards that 

 would be applied to some other sections. A fairly long list of 

 species may be confidently expected, but as a rule there is not an 



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