same respect as a sensible human does when wearing thin-soled 

 canvas shoes. Deer and peccaries mince carefully along between 

 them and always go around them, even when in headlong flight. 

 The large cats and, I have been told, particularly the Jaguar 

 prefer to give all areas where they grow as wide a berth as pos- 

 sible. I have seen puma in dense cactus beds in south Sonora, 

 and it was then pointed out to me that they were always follow- 

 ing man-made paths. Experienced native hunters told me that 

 the cats suffer from cactus thorns picked up on the ground as 

 they do from porcupine quills, because both may be barbed. This 

 seems reasonable; but how then do the lesser cats — the Ocelot 



Left: Even hawks make use of the cactuses. Here a pair of 

 Western Red-tails has built a nest among the spines. 



Facing page: Barrel cactuses are rather odd: their spines 

 reduce the effect of the sun's rays; they grow after they 

 have fallen: and they grow on the bias. 



and the Eyra (Jaguarondi) — manage so well in just such growth, 

 getting their food by hunting the innumerable other animals that 

 seem to be totally unaffected by the worst that even a jumping 

 choUa can provide? 



This is really a curious thing when you come to examine it. 

 In jumping chollas — which are more or less impenetrable masses 

 of needle-sharp spines — there customarily live hosts of small 

 animals that dart in and out of their mazelike branches, ap- 

 parently with as much ease as we might cross a country road. 

 First there is the little Cactus Wren, which seems to be more or 

 less symbiotic with the chollas, making its nest therein and skip- 

 ping through them at great speed. In addition the Goldfinch, 

 Linnet, Verdin, and sundry other small birds also live in the 

 densest masses of spines. Then the Kangaroo Rats make their 

 nests in huge piles of the fallen portions of the most spinous 

 cactuses, and dart in and out of them as if the spines did not 

 exist, without ever so much as a scratch. The Pack Rats also tote 

 these horrendous objects considerable distances and pile them 

 up. How either rodent manages this is not known. 



Their basic aim would seem to be to make a rampart against 

 predators such as coyotes; but their worst enemy, the Cacomistle 

 (often called "Ring-tailed Cat"), though a small, soft-furred, 

 quick member of the raccoon family with a long, bushy tail of 

 alternating black and white rings, seems to be able to penetrate 

 these bomas with the greatest of ease. Cacomistles are the mam- 

 malian world's champion escape artists; for, though the size of 

 small domestic cats, they can wedge themselves into crevices 

 so constricted it is quite unbelievable even when you see them 

 for yourself. 



Many kinds of mice, such as the Pocket Mice, gallivant about 

 cactuses of all kinds, rippling in and out among the spines; but 

 I have seen a bobcat shin up one as if it were spineless, while 

 the coatis climb them unconcernedly during their mass forays. 

 All three kinds of skunks — the Hognosed, Striped, and the little 

 spotted Spilogale — bumble about beneath them, and fat raccoons 

 hunt in them. There is a small gray-colored squirrel in southern 

 Sonora in the Scrub Belt that delights in rushing up and down 

 the flutings of the giant organpipe cactus stems inside the spines 

 and can somehow safely dart through from one of these flutings 

 to the next. And it is in the giant cactuses — Pringle's, the Sa- 

 guaro, and the Organpipe — that the most astonishing communi- 

 ties of wildlife may be found. First, the Gila Woodpecker gets his 

 living off insects from under the leathery hides of these plants 

 by making his characteristic holes; he also makes specially large 

 holes in which he installs his mate at nesting time. The cactus 

 responds by lining this with scar tissue. When the woodpecker's 

 family is raised and has departed, the tiny Elf Owl comes along 

 and takes up his abode therein. This delightful little creature is 

 about the size of an overfed sparrow, is incurably inquisitive, 

 and seems not at all afraid of man or beast. 



DESERT NIGHT LIFE 



The fauna of the desert is extraordinarily plentiful, but it is so 

 adept at concealment during daylight hours that one might think 



264 



