DESERT ANIMALS 



161 



pushed to it, makes a meal of crickets and grass- 

 hoppers. But even at this he is not more facile 

 than the coyote. Nor can he surpass the coyote 

 in robbing a hen-roost and keeping out of a 

 trap while doing it. He cuts no important fig- 

 ure on the desert and, indeed, he is hardly a 

 desert animal though sometimes found there. 

 The conditions of existence are too severe for 

 him. The strength of the cat, the legs of the 

 wolf, and the stomach of the coyote are not his ; 

 and so he prowls nearer civilization and takes 

 more risk for an easier life. 



And the prey, what of the prey ! The ani- 

 mals of the desert that furnish food for the 

 meat eaters like the wolf and the cat — the ani- 

 mals that cannot fight back or at least wage un- 

 equal warfare — are they left hopelessly and help- 

 lessly at the mercy of the destroyers ? Not so. 

 Nature endows them and protects them as best 

 she can. Every one of them has some device to 

 baffle or trick the enemy. Even the poor little 

 homed toad, that has only his not too thick 

 skin to save him, can slightly change the color 

 of that skin to suit the bowlder he is flattened 

 upon so that the keenest eye would pass him 

 over unnoticed. The jack-rabbit cannot change 

 his skin, but he knows many devices whereby he 



The prey. 



Devices/or 

 escape. 



