XVUl CONTENTS 



and owls — The burrowing owl — Ground-birds — The road- 

 rnnner's swiftness — The vicious beak — The desert quail 

 — Wings of the quail — Travelling for water — Habits of 

 the quail — His strong legs — Bush-birds — Woodpeckers 

 and cactus— Finches and mocking-birds — Humming-birds 

 — Doves and grosbeaks— The lark and flickers — Jays and 

 magpies — Water fowl — Beetles and worms — Fighting de- 

 struction by breed — Blue and green beetles — Butterflies — 

 Design and character — Beauty of birds— Beauty also of 

 reptiles — Nature's work all purposeful — Precious jewel 

 of the toad 174 



Chaftek XI. Mesas and Foot-Sills — Flat steps of 

 the desert — Across Southern Arizona — Rising from the 

 desert — The great mesas — "Grease -wood plains" — Up- 

 land vegetation — Grass plains — Spring and summer on the 

 plains — Home of the antelope — Beds of soda and gypsum 

 — Biding into the unexpected — The Grand Canyop 

 country — Hills covered with juniper— tThe Painted Deser» 

 — Riding on the mesas — The reversion to savagery — The 

 thin air again — The light and its deceptions — Distorted 

 proportions— Changed colors — The little hills — Fainting 

 the desert — Worn - down mountains — Mountain wash — 

 Flattening down the plain — Mountain making — The foot- 

 hills — Forms of the foot-hills — Mountain plants — Bare 

 mountains — The southern exposures — Gray lichens — Still 

 in the desert — Arida Zona — Cloud-bursts in the mesas — 

 Wash of rains— Gorge cutting — In the canyons — Walls 

 of rock — Color in canyon shadows — Blue sky — Desert 

 landscape — Knowledge of Nature — Nature-lovers — 

 Human limitations 194 



Chafteb XII. Jfovntain- Barriers . — The western 

 mountains — Saddles and passes — View from mountain 

 top — ^Looking toward the peaks — ^Lost streams — Ava- 



