WILD CAVE DWELLERS OF MEXICO 



By C. WILLIAM BEEBE. * 



S the great tableland 

 of Mexico descends 

 in abrupt strides to 

 the Pacific coast, it 

 marks its trail with 

 many deep and pre- 

 cipitous barrancas, 

 or canyons. Here, 

 in these gigantic 

 gorges, tropical life 

 runs riot in a profu- 

 sion of gorgeous 

 bird and blossom, of 

 melodious song and 

 pungent perfume. 



Everywhere in the cliffs of these 

 barrancas are caves, some large and 

 many small ; and toward evening, or in 

 fact by careful watching at almost 

 any hour, the many tenants of these 

 rocky shelters may be detected. 



Just across the stream beside which 

 our camp was pitched was the en- 

 trance of an unusually large cave. 

 Most inaccessible to adventurous man 

 was this cavern — half way up the al- 

 most perpendicular wall of the bar- 

 ranca. 



We used to lie beside the foaming 

 waters of the tumultuous little river, 

 idly watching the dark, yawning 

 mouth of the cavern, wondering 

 dreamily what went on inside its mys- 

 terious shadowy depths. 



One morning we surprised a pair of 



*Curator of Ornithology, New York Zoological 

 Society. 



Mexican canyon wrens as they flew 

 out of the entrance of the cave. After 

 drinking at the stream below, they re- 

 turned to the entrance to sing their 

 silvery song, — the sweetest herald, in 

 all the barranca, of the new born day. 

 After this we were always up early 

 enough to be present at their morning 

 concert. We imagined that it was in 

 worship of the glorious sunshine and 

 of the clear, sparkling air and the 

 crystal waters that they sang. One 

 grows to be less matter of fact when 

 living the free life of the wilderness. 

 As the Pagans of old saw the wonder 

 of the world and worshipped, seeing 

 in the rising sun the smile of their god 

 and in the gathering storm his dis- 

 pleasure; so we too began to take life 

 less prosaically and to see new beauty 

 in all Nature. 



Later in the day three or four large 

 iguanas crawled lazily from the cave 

 and out upon the rocks, where they 

 basked for hours in the glowing sun- 

 shine, or scrambled along the narrow 

 ledges, foraging among the low vege- 

 tation. These iguanas are very com- 

 mon in all the tierra caliente of Mex- 

 ico, varying in size from small ones a 

 foot long, all the way to great fellows 

 forty-five to fifty inches in length. 

 Strange-looking creatures they are, 

 with scales of blue-black, and mottled 

 on back and neck with flesh-color. 

 Along the back is a ridge of tooth-like 

 spines, which give them a fierce and 



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