HUNTING BIRDS WITH A CAMERA 



201 



there were no birds in the desert. vShe 

 had lieen there two months and had 

 scarcely seen a bird, she said. But pcr- 

 liaps she did not have an eye single to 

 bird study. AMien one travels 2,000 

 miles to hunt birds with a camera, he is 

 likely to find them, even in the desert. 



One spring Airs. FinleA' and I went to 

 Arizona to study and photograph the 

 birds of the desert. At Tucson we bought 

 a horse and light buggy. For three 

 months we wandered about day after day, 

 through the cactus and along the old river 

 bottoms, making friends with the birds. 



The problems of the desert are in- 

 tensely interesting to a naturalist. Take 

 it froni nearly every standpoint, Mother 

 Nature is strict and harsh with all her 

 children of the desert. Life is spent on 

 the mjtrch or in the firing line. Nearly 

 everything is fortified with thorns. 



The cactus has a panoply of points to 

 protect its soft, spongy meat : the mes- 

 quite, the paloverde, and the delicate 

 white poppy clothe themseh'es in thorns. 



The pudg"\' toad in our (Jregon garden 

 grows fat and laz}'. but he wfiuldn't last 

 long in Arizona. Out on the desert. Na- 

 ture arms her "toads" and lizards in thorns 

 and scales. The "toad" grows flat and 

 thin, can run like a streak, and digs a 

 hiding place in the sand. He wears a 

 crown of thorns and is reall}" a lizard in- 

 stead of a toad. 



Out in the desert we found birds in 

 abundance : Road Runners, Verdins, Gnat- 

 catchers, and three kinds of Thrashers — 

 Palmer, Eendire, and Crissal. The river 

 bottoms were al\va}^s full of song, fur 

 there were numbers of blocking Birds, 

 Chats, Cardinals, Tanagers, A\'arblers, 

 Towhees, Flycatchers, House Finches, 

 and four A-arieties of Doves — Mourning, 

 Inca, Alexican Ground, and AMiite- 

 winged. 



THE AUTOilOBILE DEFEATS THE ROAD 

 RUNNER 



The Road Runner is, perhaps, the most 

 striking character of the cactus belt. He 

 has a variety of names — Ground Cuckoo, 

 Afexican Paisano, Snake-killer, Chaparral 

 Cock, and Cock-of-the-Desert. 



A\'hen we first \\-ent to Arizona wc were 

 anxious to find a Road Runner. We 

 found se\'eral old nests and occasionally 

 '\\'e would catch a glimpse of a slim, long- 

 tailed bird running through the cactus. 



One day, when we least expected it, a 

 Road Runner slid across the road, hopped 

 up into a cholla cactus, and was instantly 

 lost to sight in the thorn\' mass. W'e 

 drove around the bush slowly, once, 

 twice ; closer and closer till we could see 

 through the tangle. But no Road Rtmner ! 

 She had disappeared, and }'et she could 

 hardly have escaped without our seeing 

 her. A slight movement in the cactus — 

 there she was, sitting bolt upright, hold- 

 ing a lizard in her bill. Until she moved, 

 she was as completely hidden as if she 

 had not been there. 



I have occasionally seen an old Road 

 Runner that takes a delight in outdistanc- 

 ing a team of horses, but the bird is not 

 accustomed to our modern method of 

 traveling. 



C>ne dav a friend was spinning do\\'n 

 the C)racle Road in his automobile, when 

 at the turn a Road Runner dropped into 

 line ahead and set the pace down the 

 smooth stretch. The driver turned on a 

 little more gasoline. The bird looked over 

 his tail at the horseless carriage. It was 

 gaining" on him. 



As the machine liore down on the as- 

 tonished bird, he became scared. He 

 cricked his tail suddenly to put on the 

 brake, made a sharp turn to the left, 

 dodged into the cactus and creosote bush, 

 and away he went, at top sijeed, as far as 

 he could be seen. 



AA'hile some people accuse the Road 

 Runner of killing other birds, especially 

 young Quail, our cxjjerience showed that 

 he lived almost entirely on lizards. The 

 3'oung birds in the nest were fed on 

 lizards from the time they were out of 

 the egg. The reptile was always killed 

 and thrust head down into the mouth of 

 the \-oungster. The tail hung out of his 

 mouth f(jr a time, but as the head was di- 

 gested the young bird gulped a little now 

 and then, until finally the end of the 

 tail disappeared (see pages 167, 186, and 

 187). 



