WILD LIFE IN CALIFORNIA 



13 



of the dust cloud. When first seen it is shal- 

 low, rising but a few feet above the desert 

 plane, but as it progresses into the desert it 

 rises on an incline until it reaches a height 

 of thousands of feet, where further projection 

 of it ends, and beyond which the atmosphere 

 is free of dust. This theory was reached while 

 trying to find an explanation for the fact that 

 we at Palm Springs and thereabouts were en- 

 joying the pleasures of an exceedingly quiet, 

 clear and clean atmosphere while a sand- 

 storm prevailed a few miles away on the 

 desert. 



In one of my morning walks I met with 

 four people in different places whose occupa- 

 tions gave strong evidence of the popularity of 

 this section with lovers of nature. One was 

 a young lady from the Eastern states, who 

 was making oil sketches of bits of the desert 

 with rugged mountain back grounds; another 

 was Carl Eytel, an artist, who has passed 

 much of his life here and in similar sections 

 of Southern California, who was engaged in 

 reproducing on canvas some local landscape 

 features in which the native palm was con- 

 spicuous; another was a lady gathering wild 

 flowers to be pressed and preserved to show 

 as novelties of the desert. The last was a 

 Californian who was sketching a picturesque 

 spot in water colors. No doubt but there 

 were others unseen by me engaged in similar 

 occupations or in making a study of the 

 insects, birds or flowers. 



As might be expected, Palm Springs was 

 not without real estate agents. As you enter 

 the town signs announcing date and other 

 fruit lands for sale are conspicuous. Up to 

 the time of our visit no date trees, so far as I 

 could learn, had been planted in that imme- 

 diate locality. From experiments made in 

 growing dates in other desert sections there 

 was reason to believe that the date palm will 

 grow thriftily and bear abundant fruit in that 

 section. We met a gentleman living in Palm 

 Springs who was then and had been for some 

 months past giving his time and attention to 

 a date orchard located at Indio, which is 

 about fifteen miles from Palm Springs. He 

 had become interested in the cultivation of 

 this fruit some few years before and had had 

 an orchard down in the extreme southern 

 part of the state, but he found the climate 

 there unsuitable to the maturing of the fruit. 

 The cool, damp breezes that came off the 

 Gulf of California mildewed the dates at the 

 ripening season. He concluded that the 

 climatic conditions at Indio were superior; 

 in fact, more like that of the home of the fruit; 

 therefore he determined to remove the 

 orchard containing about 400 trees to Indio. 

 This was two years and one-half ago. In 

 carrying out this very remarkable under- 

 taking the trees were carefully dug up and 

 crated, hauled five miles to a railroad station, 

 and from thence were shipped by rail to 

 Indio. Some of the larger trees weighed two 

 tons each. Of course he had a very large 

 freight bill to pay, to say nothing of the cost 

 of digging up and replanting. Remarkable 

 to record, he lost very few trees in the trans- 

 planting and none of those that died 



were large trees. The loss was confined en- 

 tirely to the small trees. He said the trees 

 were then in bloom and gave every evidence 

 of being located in a congenial situation with 

 profitable results. 



One forenoon while walking along an irri- 

 gation ditch we discovered a pair of giant 

 water bugs known as Belostoma of the specie 

 Serphus dilatatus. The entire back of the male 

 was covered with the eggs of his mate, which 

 she had placed and cemented there, a habit 

 which the females of this specie are addicted 

 to. He was thus made the caretaker of about 

 ninety eggs, which were rather more elon- 

 gated than globular and about two millimeters 

 in diameter. Judging from its actions com- 

 pared with those of the female, I concluded 

 that it was not taking life, under the condi- 

 tions imposed, with any great degree of ease 

 and comfort. 



Upon my return to Piedmont three weeks 

 later I took Mr. Serphus out of the small box 

 where I had been keeping him between moist 

 wads of paper. He appeared none the worse 

 for his close imprisonment, but I noticed that 

 the eggs had elongated or grown lengthwise 

 by half a millimeter. I put him in a glass 

 jar partially filled with water. It was un- 

 necessary to put a cover over the top of the 

 jar, as it seemed impossible for him to use his 

 wings plastered down as they appeared with 

 eggs. 



I also put a large flat cork in the jar for a 

 float that the bug might have a place on which 

 to get out of the water if so disposed. This 

 he used a great part of the time by which to 

 lift the tip of his abdomen above the water. 

 I presume he did this for the purpose of ob- 

 taining air; for, like some other forms of 

 insect life, he probably secured his needed 

 supply through the stomata or breathing 

 places there. 



Three days later I noted that some of the 

 eggs had elongated to about four millimeters 

 or to about double the length of when I first 

 saw them. That day eight or ten eggs hatched 

 and as many little baby Serphus were soon 

 swimming around in the jar. They were like 

 the parent in shape and in a few hours they 

 acquired a t length of about eight with a 

 breadth of about four millimeters. Burdened 

 as he was, like Sinbad the Sailor, it must have 

 been a happy day for the father. The young 

 bugs when they first emerge are practically 

 colorless but become yellowish a little later, 

 then soon take on a rather dark brown color 

 and become quite lively. Their eyes, two little 

 black dots, as well as the beak, were quite 

 conspicuous. 



I took the parent bug out of the jar to 

 examine the unhatched eggs and found about 

 a dozen in advanced stages of hatching. In 

 the earliest stage the top of the egg breaks 

 open and a transparent jelly-like mass pro- 

 trudes. This is the head part and bears three 

 black specks which become the eyes and beak 

 of the mature bug. The emergence from the 

 egg cases is a very slow process. I could see 

 but little progress in the course of an hour's 

 observation. The body seemed almost shape- 

 less and lifeless until the emergence was com- 



