The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1891-03-06
LIFE IN A Bic DESERT.
Creatures that interest the Lonely
Traveller.
[san Francisco Examiner.

There's plenty of;life on the desert
notscrowds of human insects, rushing
and tearing about like crazy ants, and
keeping up a din7day and night -thatsis
enough TO drive the underworld mad
but interesting, sensible, natural life,
full of comedy, tragedy and even hu-
NOR. Ii you feelllonesone you can find
company anywhere by turning up a
rock or looking under the sagetrrsh.
There's no lack of ingenious, curious
little creatures whose 'ways are worth
studying.
Take the tarantnla4 hawk, for examplA.
That's an insect bui2t=something ikea
wasp, or perhaps more like a 'sdevilss
daruing needle, and it ffiessabout look
ing for 'tarantulassjju stsaszthethawkso
housekeeping his,eyepeeled.f for gophars
and such provender. When theshawk
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS the bag spider,
swoops down upon him, .stings him and
gets away dixie fash. The tarantzlia
knows Observation-Disclosures to get under
cover, and helegs it home in frantic
haste. ItsAfun TO seesthesbig, hairy leg
ged bully duck his. head and paddlesoff
through the sand as If the-devl were
after him-and the~devil' is after him,
sure enough.
II the tarant1la is near shis house he
may escape by gett1ngstoit, .turrhamgin
head first and shutting the-door tight,
but hes got to hustle for it, because
little Jack the Giant Killer hustler
himself, and keeps jabbingaway stevery
jump. If the hairy ogre gets caught out
great way from his castle his name 10
Dennis, and he Knows it. He fops orer
upon his back to make fight, and if he
could get hold of the hawk in that posi-
ton he would make short work of the
little chap, but the hawk sees the trick,
and just keepssailing around and watch
ing for an opening, and when he catches
the spider off guardhe darts in, hits him
a lick and gets away like fash.
QUEER BIRDS
Sometimes the hawk will pretend to
quit and fly away, but the instant the
tarantula is on his feet and scoeting for
shelter, whizzl comes the hawk like
bullet and socks it to him in the back of
the, A few stings like that do up
the tarantula. He seems to become
dizzy from the poison, staggers a few
steps and collapses in a hairy heap. His
legs twitch few times, and that is the
end of his marvellous career.
I've been calling the hawk che" all
along, but it isn't that kind of bird.
The tarantula Nemesis is the female
hawk, SO far as can judge, because aft
or the spider is knocked out the hawk
proceeds to deposit eggs in the remains,
and suppose the eggs are Matched by
the heat of decomposition. Possibly the
purpose of laying eggs in defunct
tarantula is to provide the young hawks
with grub at the threshold of life, so to
speak. Whatever the scheme may be, it
is death to tarantula, and for that rea-
son nobody ever harms tarantula hawk.
The insects sting is said to be poisonous
to men, but never knew one to sting
man.
Then there is the road runner-a joy
GUS, sociable little fellow, whose bust
ness in life is worrying rattlesnakes to
death. The road runner is bird some
what larger than a bluejay, with saucy
toplnot and still saucer tail about a
foot in length. He runs as fast as
horse ordinarily travels, and if he once
gets into the road ahead of a horseman
he will race along for hours and can't
be driven out of the road. He could
skip aside and get out of the way if he
wanted to, but he seems to think that it
is his mission in life to keep just ahead
of that horse, and nothing can divert
him from that occupation.
He is not in the least alarmed, and
when he gains too much of lead he will
stop and seesaw with his tail and chirrup
merrily until the horse nearly catches
up with him. Then away he goes again,
as if his life depended upon winning the
race. When he wearies Of the sport he
disappears in the brush.
TANTAIIZING A SNAKE
/ was riding across a cactus desert
once when a pair of road runners that
had been racing with me turned out of
the trail and became suddenly very
much excited about something. They
paid no more attention to me, and rode
up near enough to see what was going
on. They had run across big diamond
back RATHER and were preparing to have
| fun with him. One of them had struck
the snake with his sharp bill and the
diamond back had promptly cooled him.
self in a defensive attitude and was
springing his rattle wickedly. One of
the birds remained near the snake,
jumping about and making a great
show of hostility, but keeping beyond
reach all the time, while the other gath
cred little punches of dry cactus, with
spines as sharp as needles and almost as
hard, which he dropped close to the rep
tile.
The road runner was as busy as the
devil in a gale of wind, and in a few
minutes he had piled regular little
corral of cactus spines all around the
rattlesnake. Then the pair of them be-
gan to tantalize the snake, and flying at
him they provoked him into striking at
them, with results disastrous to himself,
for every time he launched out he hit
into the cactus and got stuck full of the
spines.
When the rattlesnake had just about
got crazy and was reckless of his guard
the road runners few up, lowered over
him and darted down at him whenever
they saw a good chance to hit him.
Their sharp bills did great execution,
and it wasn't long before they had the
rattlesnake laid ont as cold as wedge.
They are great generals, these road run
ners, and they always get away with the
rattlesnake. That's why nobody ever
shoots road runner in California
Effects Of Pride.
New York Ledger.]
An ancient and distinguished indi vid-
ual writes: