214 A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO. 



are seen in the bark : first the trunks are smooth 

 and green ; then they are hung with shaggy 

 shreds of bark ; this in turn drops off so that 

 the old trees are smooth again. Some of the 

 young shoots have almost white stems, and their 

 leaves have a pinkish tinge. Indeed, a young 

 blue gum is as pretty a sight as one often sees ; 

 it is a tree of exquisite delicacy of coloring. 



Mountain Billy and I both liked to wander 

 among the blue gums. Billy liked it, perhaps, 

 for association's sake, for we had ridden through 

 the eucalyptus at his home in northern Cali- 

 fornia. I too had pleasant memories of the 

 northern gums, but my first interest was in 

 finding out who lived in my little woods. A 

 dog had once been seen driving a coyote wolf 

 out of it, but that was merely in passing. I 

 did not expect to meet wolves there. It was 

 said, however, to be a good place for tarantulas, 

 so at first I stepped over the dead leaf carpet 

 with great caution ; but never seeing any of 

 the big spiders, grew brave and sat indifferently 

 right on the ground before the nests, or leaning 

 up against the trees. The ground was almost 

 as hard as a rock, for the eucalyptus absorbed 

 all the moisture, and that may have had some- 

 thing to do with its freedom from snakes and 

 scorpions, though it would not explain the 

 absence of caterpillars and spiders, which just 

 then were so common outside. Though in the 



