The first 

 day s walk. 



Tracks in 

 the sand. 



CHAPTER X 

 WINGED LIFE 



THE desert's secrets of life and growth and 

 death are not to be read at a glance. The first 

 day's walk is usually a disappointment. You 

 see little more than a desolate waste. The 

 light of the blue sky, the subtle color of the air, 

 the roll of the valleys, the heave of the moun- 

 tains do not reveal themselves at once. The 

 vegetation you think looks like a thin covering 

 of dry sticks. And as for the animals, the birds 

 the living things on the desert they are not 

 apparent at all. 



But the casual stroll does not bring you to 

 the end of the desert's resources. You may 

 perhaps walk for a whole day and see not a beast 

 or a bird of any description. Yet they are here. 

 Even in the lava-beds where not even cactus 

 will grow, and where to all appearance there is 

 no life whatever, you may see tracks in the sand 

 where quail and road-runners and linnets have 

 been running about in search of food. There 

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