122 



Life in the Open 



these big impressions have been made by a vagrant band 

 of sea lions that passed the night here and went to sea 

 at early morn. 



But wait until the night wind drops and the great 

 furnace of the desert begins to call the wind ; every 

 trace and footprint of the night is effaced. Little rivers 

 of sand come running along the surface, filling every 

 crevice, climbing up against the ice plant and verbena, 

 and threatening the white flowers that lie along the 

 sand. The pink faces of the shore verbena almost dis- 

 appear as the wind rises ; and so the story of the night 

 passes and a new one is told. 



The beach has a constant following of shore birds. 

 Laughing gulls parade it, acting as scavengers, with 

 gulls of several kinds ; just above is the least tern, eying 

 us furtively, a delicate, beautiful creature like a spirit 

 of the sand. Here I have found its nest along the dunes, 

 and at one place, near Laguna, the bird had collected 

 the richly coloured shells of the Donax, with which it 

 formed a pavement and deposited its eggs upon it. 



The California gull, the royal tern, Foster's tern, 

 and many more catch the discerning eye of the stroller ; 

 and as he walks along the sands there is a constantly ris- 

 ing silvery throng of small beach birds that fly out a few 

 feet and seem to become a part of the foam and disap- 

 pear, to as suddenly come in and alight ; running along 

 and dotting the soft yielding sands with their footprints. 



Lying on the dunes near a point, one may see the 

 American avocet, the black-necked stilt, and the marbled 



