STRANGE DWELLERS OF THE DESERT
The representatives of the animal kingdom in the desert are fully as
strange and curious as are the specimens of vegetable life. It may seem
strange that animal life should exist at all in this region of death
and desolation, but several forms of creatures seem to find this dread
region congenial.
In keeping with its surroundings is the _crotalus cerastes_, one of the
most deadly of the rattlesnake family. It is known to the frequenters
of the desert region as the "sidewinder," because of its alleged
propensity for springing sidewise at the object of its wrath, and
because it travels with a sidelong motion. The bite of this creature is
considered to be certain death, and it is a saying in the West, when
some unusually frightful catastrophe overtakes one: "It was a regular
sidewinder."
The sidewinder is of a grayish color, mottled with dark blotches. It is
found in the very heart of the desert, miles and miles from any known
supply of water, and it is believed by many to be able to exist without
that fluid.
Near the borders of the desert the great yellow diamond-back rattler,
_crotalus horridus_, is found, as well as a species of constrictor
known as the "bull snake." The latter grows to a length of ten or
twelve feet and, while formidable to look upon, is perfectly harmless.
[Illustration: DESERT LIZARD, CHUCAWALLA, CLOSELY AKIN TO THE GILA
MONSTER]
Such innocence is not claimed for the Gila monster, _heloderina
horridum_, which is found in the southern portion of the Colorado
Desert. This huge lizard is like the chameleon in one respect: it
changes its color to conform to its surroundings. It is in the main of
a yellow hue, with dark markings which change to a gray or to a reddish
tint according to the character of the soil about its abiding-place.
When it lies quietly upon the earth it is very difficult to detect it
because of this resemblance to the soil.
The Gila monster attains a length of nearly two feet. It is covered
with horny protuberances and scales similar to the horned toad, so
called. When angry it makes a hissing noise not unlike that made by a
serpent.
[Illustration: HORNED TOAD]
The horned toad--which is not a toad, but the lizard _phrynosoma_--is
an innocent little fellow, attaining a length of six or eight inches at
the most. There was a time when his reputation for evil was second
only to that of the Gila monster. Now that he is better known he has
become a plaything of children and a pet in many a household.
A common creature in the portions of the desert in which cacti abound
is the cactus rat, a small rodent about midway in size between the
mouse and the ordinary rat. He is provided with a bushy tail which he
carries over his back, squirrel fashion. He lives upon the barrel
cactus, a plant so protected by spines as to seem unapproachable by man
or animal. The cunning rat, however, has found a way of attacking this
formidable vegetable. He burrows in the earth at the foot of the plant
and comes at it from beneath. One specimen of the matured plant will
keep a colony of the rats several months. They gnaw at its vitals till
nothing but the empty shell remains, then they emigrate to some other
plant and there set up housekeeping for another six or eight months.
Living so far from a habitable country, the rat finds few enemies to
molest it. The rattler is about the only creature which preys upon it,
therefore it thrives and multiplies in the midst of the fearful region
it has chosen for its home.
It is astonishing to the desert traveler, after he has crossed half a
hundred miles of parched and barren territory, to find about the spring
of an oasis tortoises basking in the sun or swimming in the waters of
the desert well.
[Illustration: TARANTULA]
The desert tortoise differs from the ordinary tortoise in several
respects. It never exceeds in length over fifteen or sixteen inches,
but in form and other characteristics it more nearly resembles the sea
turtle than it does the tortoise. This leads to the belief that the
desert specimen is the descendant of a sea turtle that throve in the
waters of the gulf when it extended over the now desert country. Change
of conditions from sea to land--and most forbidding land at that--is
supposed to have dwarfed the original species till a new one is the
outcome of the change.
[Illustration: CENTIPEDE]
If one familiarizes himself with the desert, he will find that the
rattler and the Gila monster are not the only representatives of the
"poison people" in that region. The scorpion, the tarantula, and the
centipede make their home there and add to the dangers and terrors of
desert travel. There are also animals found here and there in the
desert and along its borders, which cannot be classed as typical desert
animals. Bands of wild horses and wild burros are known to roam the
formidable region, migrating from oasis to oasis, cropping the grasses
at one place till they are exhausted, then moving across the burning
sands, guided by unerring instinct, to the next green spot in the
desert, twenty, forty, or perhaps fifty miles away. The coyote, too,
finds his way to nearly all portions of the desert, and even in the
midst of the great desolate waste his uncanny cry goes up in the
night-time, making the darkness still more lonely for the chance
traveler who pitches his tent in the land of terror.
[Illustration: SCORPION]
Few birds are seen in the desert after one has left the border-lands
behind, but there is one inhabitant of the air which is never absent.
Hovering ever over the region of death is the vulture, ready to settle
down to his grewsome feast the moment thirst and heat shall have
robbed his victim of life. One may scan the heavens with never a sight
of one of these birds while all goes well with himself and his beast,
but let one of his horses or burros fall by the way, and lo! from the
heavens descend numbers of the birds, and, should a traveler pass that
way a few hours later, he would find but the whitening bones of the
animal and a few fragments of the hide. And were he to look aloft, he,
too, would discern not a speck against the blue canopy above him.