140 DENIZENS OF THE DESERT 



season and during the summer the tender twigs 

 of teamster's tea {Ephedra) and the new leaves 

 of the buckthorn, rhus, and other shrubs are 

 eaten in preference to grass. When I ques- 

 tioned the Indians concerning the summer food 

 of the desert sheep, they almost invariably told 

 me that the bighorns then ate many barrel 

 cactuses, breaking them open with their horns. 

 This I can readily believe, for I have often seen 

 evidences of their banquets in the kitchen 

 middens about the bases of the mutilated cac- 

 tuses. 



The single young is brought forth in March. 

 By this time the ewes have retired to places of 

 seclusion, selected because of their inaccessi- 

 bility to predacious animals. The mothers with 

 their young are always exceedingly alert, watch- 

 ful, and sagacious, and from their favored posi- 

 tions they can easily detect the oncoming of a 

 gunman or other enemy. When approached 

 they may allow their impelling curiosity to hold 

 them for a while, but at the proper time they 

 quietly drop over the edge of the prominences 

 which they have been occupying and by the 

 time the pursuer has reached their former post 



