THE VOICE OF THE DESERT ] ^g 



here also runs races with itself, is a good deal fleeter than 

 any Wordsworth was privileged to observe in the Lake 

 Country. 



In this warm chmate, moreover, love puts in his appear- 

 ance even before "the yonge sonne hath in the Ram his 

 half e cours y-ronne" or, in scientific prose, ahead of the 

 spring equinox. Many species of birds, which for months 

 have done little more than chirp,, begin to remember their 

 songs. In the canyons where small pools are left from 

 some winter rain, the subaqueous and most mysteri- 

 ous of all spring births begins and seems to recapitulate 

 the first morning of creation. Though I have never noticed 

 that either of the two kinds of doves which spend the 

 whole year with us acquire that "livelier iris" which Ten- 

 nyson celebrated, the hzard's belly turns turquoise blue, 

 as though to remind his mate that even on their ancient 

 level sex has its aesthetic as well as its biological aspect. 

 Fierce sparrow hawks take to sitting side by side on tele- 

 graph wires, and the Arizona cardinal, who has remained 

 all winter long more brilliantly red than his eastern cousin 

 ever is, begins to think romantically of his neat but not 

 gaudy wife. For months before, he had been behaving like 

 an old married man who couldn't remember what he once 

 saw in her. Though she had followed him about, he had 

 sometimes driven her rudely away from the feeding station 

 until he had had his fill. Now gallantry begins to revive 

 and he may even graciously hand her a seed. 



A little later the cactus wren and the curved-bill thrasher 

 will build nests in the wicked heart of the choUa cactus 

 and, blessed with some mysterious impunity, dive through 

 its treacherous spines. Somewhere among the creosote 

 bushes, by now yellow with blossoms, the jack rabbit — 



