244 THREE WESTERN BIRD GROUPS 



was difficult to believe that we were not in a land of great 

 fertility. 



The palo verdes (Parkins onia) were covered with such a 

 profusion of yellow flowers that they gave a yellow tone to 

 the landscape. The scarlet blossoms of the well-named 

 candle bush (Fouquieria), at the end of their slender, spiny 

 and generally leafless branches, gleamed like little tongues 

 of fire. The great leaves of the wide-branching, prickly pear 

 cactus (Opuntia engelmanni) were often fringed with large, 

 pale yellow blossoms which, toward evening, became a deli- 

 cate shade of butt'. A cylindrical-leaved cactus of the same 

 genus (O. versicolor) developed a confusing tangle of intri- 

 cate growing branches, and a correspondingly large number 

 of yellow, mahogany, and scarlet flowers. Opuntia spinosior 

 bore magenta blossoms, while those of Opuntia cholla were 

 pink, but, unlike the two species first mentioned, neither was 

 in full bloom. 



To eastern eyes, the giant cactus (Cereus giganteus] 

 was the most striking type of plant-life. The drier, more 

 rocky slopes were, in places, thickly grown with its candela- 

 bra-like forms, some of which attained a height of forty 

 feet. The white, waxy, tubular flowers appeared in a cluster 

 at the end of the branches, where they opened toward the 

 sun. As virtually the only form of vegetation suitable for 

 hole-nesting birds, this cactus is possessed of an especial 

 interest to the ornithologist. Few specimens of any size are 

 without one or more Woodpecker's holes; the Gilded 

 Flicker being apparently so dependent on this kind of nest- 

 ing-site that is not found where the giant cactus is absent. 

 The Elf Owl also is known to nest only in this cactus, using 

 the old Woodpecker holes. Several species of birds, notably 

 the White-winged Dove, were seen apparently probing the 

 Cereus flowers, but just what they obtained I did not learn. 



Except along the "washes", where mesquite grew 

 abundantly, there was no shade ; no murmuring of leaves. 

 The rigid, thorny vegetation was rendered attractive only 



