12 DENIZENS OF THE DESERT 



picked up the lizard's body and would have 

 picked up the dismembered tail also, but he was 

 at a loss to know how to do it. How could he, 

 when his jaws were already pried wide apart 

 by the reptile's body, pick up in addition the 

 wriggling, squirming tail? — that was the ques- 

 tion. He looked at it puzzlingly and with cu- 

 riosity, and tried again and again to pick it 

 up without putting down the rest of his prize. 

 He seemed to be suspicious that the tailless 

 reptile once down might run away while the 

 cast-off appendage was being picked up. He 

 would run no risk. In some manner the body of 

 the lizard must be adequately compressed be- 

 tween the jaws to bring the ends of the man- 

 dibles sufficiently close together to hold, in 

 addition to the body, the delectable but recalci- 

 trant tail. And so several times the mandibles 

 were firmly pressed together until the lizard's 

 bones were well cracked. The obstreperous tail 

 was then picked up and the bird, holding his 

 head high in air, ran off with his wriggling prize, 

 under a mesquite tree, over the rocks and into 

 the brush. 



It is not often that you run across the nest 



