The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-11-18

continued dry periods vast numbers
of these small mammals perish of
starvation. owing to the failure of
necessary crops of succulent and
seed-bearng heritage; but after two
or three years of renewed rainfall
and abundant plant life the desert
again swarms with countless numbers
Of these small folk.
A large number of the smaller kind
! of desert mammals never drink WA
ter. They live and thrive on dry
seeds and scraps Of vegetation in
places where the heat and aridity are
excessive without ever touching their
Inns TO water. and it has even been
found impossible to teach some OF
them to take water in captivity Ap-
parently they never know thirst or
the delight of qu nching it.
Large desert mammals, such as
rabbits and deer, also obtain sufficient
moisture by eating the succulent
parts of certain plants they know
how to find.
I have come repeatedly to solitary
water holes, in the hottest weather, q .
long march from any other water /
and found the loose earth about their
borders undisturbed by tracks except |
those of birds, while within a few
rods were tracks where wandering
deer and rabbits had fed day after
day with absolute indifference to the
proximity of water. The ability to
do without water on the desert ap-
pears to be peculiar to rodents and
other herbivorous mammals, since
, we found no signs of carnivorous
species far from accessible water.
The first mountain sheep discover
ed in America were those recorded in
the early writings of the Spanish mis-
sionaries from Lower California.
There are numerous species Of noun
+ tain sheep in the mountains in the
t northern part of the peninsula,
Here the SUNNI temperatures
are commonly much more than 100
degrees Fahrenheit in the shade, and
the arid mountain slopes have
scanty growth of cactuses, yuccas,
fouquieras and other strictly desert
> plants. These sheep commonly go to
> water when available in the hot, dry
Il summers, but are able to exist for
considerable periods, even in hot
> weather, on the moisture obtained
from the heshy visnaga cactus the
l. tender flowers and flower stalks Of
y agaves and yuccas and from other
" water-storing desert plants.
In addition to the mammals already
Is mentioned wildcats, badgers, spotted
IA skunks, raccoons, coyotes and a kind
u of fox make their homes or the
- desert.
," The spotted skunk, or hydrophobia
y skunk, as it is commonly called, is
" most abundant in the extreme south
ern end of the peninsula, where it is
~ looked upon with fear and abhor.
reE)re, owing to it's habit of biting
people in the face while they are
sleeping on the ground and the re,
n puted commonly resulting death OF
be the victim by rabies. The fear OF
st these animals extends throughout the
if peninsula, and we were warned OF
CHI the danger from them when we were
in preparing for the trip.
at On San Martin island, near Sar
20 Quintin, in July, we found many
cormorants breeding, with some fam
de lilies of young in the nests. While We
m wandered over the island we were ac
ed companied by a low flying escort o
M Western gulls.
Ill Whenever a cormorant, alarmed b,
es- our approach, flew away, the gull
ms swooped down on the exposed egg
ce and ate them at once; or, if we wer
til too near, each gull transfxed an eg
MS, on it's beak and flew away, drainin
oh the contents as it went. On two OF
zee casions l saw gulls alight on nest
in, and calmly pick up young cormorant
us weighing five or six ounces each, an
I0S swallow them entlfe, the helpless VIC
SIS, Tins being swallowed head foremos
nd their feet waving despairingly froT
on the gulls' widely spread beaks a
DID they disappeared.
is While at La Grulla meadow in tn
las San Pedro Martir mountains, we wer
fortunate enough to secure our frs
er- California condor, a huge bird, some
ne times measuring nearly eleven fee
as across it's outspread wings. We afte
III ward saw others, and had most ell
en- ioyable experiencing watching a doze
ne or more of them in superb flight a
Ca they swept back and forth over tn
50 pine forest or scared up and disal
VI peared in the blue sky. When thes
es. birds were perching on a dead tire
o. the turkey buzzard near them locke
~ like pygmies