CONTENTS XVU 



— Beauty in character — Forms of the yucca and maguey — 

 The lluTia d'oro — Grotesque forms — Abnormal colors — 

 Blossoms and flowers — Many varieties — Wild flowers — 

 Salt-bush — The grasses and lichens — The continuous 

 struggle 128 



Chapter IX. Desert Animals. — Meeting desert re- 

 quirements — Peculiar desert character — Desert Indians 

 — Life without water — Endurance of the jack-rabbit 

 — Prairie dogs and water — "Water famine — Coyotes 

 and wild cats living without water — Lean, gaunt life — 

 Fierceness of animals — Attack and escape — The wild 

 cat — Spring of the cat — Mountain lion — His habits — 

 The gray wolf — Home of the wolf — The coyote — His 

 cleverness — His subsistence — His background — The fox 

 — The prey — Devices for escape — Senses of the rabbit — 

 Speed of the jack-rabbit — His endurance — The " cotton- 

 tail " — Squirrels and gophers — Desert antelope — His eyes, 

 nose, and ears — His swiftness — The mule-deer — Deer 

 in flight — White-tailed deer — The reptiles— Defence of 

 poison — The fang and sting — The rattlesnake and his 

 poison — Spiders and tarantulas — Centipedes and scor- 

 pions — Lizards and swifts — The hydrophobia skunk — The 

 cutthroat baHd — The eternal struggle — Brute courage 

 and character — Beauty in character — Graceful forms of 

 animals — Colors of lizards — Mystery of motion 150 



Chapter X. Winged Life. — First day's walk — Tracks 

 in the sand — Scarcity of birds — Dangers of bird-life — No 

 cover for protection — Food problem — Heat and drouth 

 again— A bird's temperature — Innocent-looking birds — 

 The road-runner — Wrens and fly-catchers — Develop- 

 ment of special characteristics — Birds of the air — The 

 vulture— His hunting and sailing— The southern buzzard 

 — The crow — The great condor — Eagles and hawks — Bats 



