Animal life of the Carlsbad cavern

ANIMAL 1 LIFE of the
‘CARLSBAD CAVERN

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MONOGRAPHS OF THE
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MAMMALOGISTS

These monographs are a series of publications
similar in character to articles published in The
Journal of Mammalogy, but not suitable for
periodical publication because of their length or
for other reasons.

The plans for this Series are broad and compre-
hensive, and contemplate the publication of
works covering all phases of technical and popular
Mammalogy.

The Monographs and The Journal of Mammalogy
are issued under the auspices of the American
Society of Mammalogists.

Information regarding these monographs may be
obtained from the Secretary of the American
Society of Mammalogists, A. Brazier Howell, U.
S. National Museum, Washington, D. eu or the
Publishers, The Williams & Wilkins Company,
Baltimore, U.S. A.

This series is edited by Hartley H. T. Jackson,
Bureau of Biological Survey, Washington, D. C.
Edward A. Preble, Ethel M. Johnson and Emma
M. Charters assisted in editing Monograph 3.

MONOGRAPHS OF THE
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MAMMALOGISTS

1. ANATOMY OF THE Woop Rat. A. Brazier
Howell, U. 8. Biological Survey, Washington,
D.C. 225 pages. $5.00.

2. THE Braver. Edward R. Warren, Colorado
Springs, Colorado. 177 pages. $3.00.

3. ANIMAL LIFE oF THE CARLSBAD CAVERN.
Vernon Bailey, Washington, D. C. 195
pages. $3.00.

Other titles will be announced

Prices are net postpaid

The American Society of Mammalogists participates in the profits from
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such monographs that could not be undertaken unless underwritten,

ANIMAL LIFE
OF THE CARLSBAD CAVERN

7

THE Gray Fox (UrRocYON CINEREOARGENTEUS SCOTTII)

These pretty little foxes inhabit the canyons and smaller caves

MONOGRAPHS OF THE
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MAMMALOGISTS

NUMBER 3

ANIMAL LIFE

OF THE

CARLSBAD CAVERN

BY
VERNON BAILEY

Biologist, United States Biological Survey

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BALTIMORE
THE WILLIAMS & WILKINS COMPANY
1928

Copyriacut 1928
THE WILLIAMS & WILKINS COMPANY

Made in the United States of America

Published February, 1928

COMPOSED AND PRINTED AT THE
WAVERLY PRESS
FOR
Tue WruuuiamMs & WILKINS CoMPANY
Battmore, Mo., U.S. A.

CHAPTER 1
LOCATION AND GENERAL FEATURES OF THE CAVERN............ 1
CHAPTER 2
LirE ZONES OF THE CARLSBAD REGION............cccccccccccue a
CHAPTER 3
CoNSPICUOUS VEGETATION OF THE REGION...................5. 20
CHAPTER 4
ANIMALS AND PLANTS OF THE REGION IN RELATION TO THE
ie GENULEENS) 1011s SpA ON as Dy PG naeD ew Ob GA MERE REMAP EL A CRO EI AS BES WEIR PLLA & 39
CHAPTER 5
REAMMATS OF THE REGION .)/)505002 sh Oe es eee ok la bak 2h eee 49
CHAPTER 6
Bren ior THE REGIONS A. asic sel c eek ie Dake ke Oa De ee 130
CHAPTER 7
PEPRInns OFPTHE TUNGEON 2) sec bdaea sshd care alk Slab en od LU 163
CHAPTER 8
INVERTEBRATES OF THE CARLSBAD CAVERN..........ccccccecee 171

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus scottit).......... frontispiece

Fig. 1. Life zones of the Carlsbad Cavern region of New Mexico
00 Gad Ms: So eee AAEM a OSERY Cy wn NVC BUD ot 9

Fig. 2. Sketch map of Carlsbad Cavern with diagrammatic cross
SCELORIE 06 ou.) 02 bi ey OE Ae Aes, I Vee Me 10
Fig. 3. West entrance to the Carlsbad Cavern................ 13
Fig. 4. Inside room at west entrance to cave.................. 14
Fig. 5. The floor of the lowest room in the cave.............. 23
Fig. 6. The mesquite tree (Prosopis glandulosa) full of fruit... 24
Fig. 7. The narrow-leaved yucca (Yucca radiosa) in fruit..... 35
Fig. 8. The small mescal (Agave lechuguwilla) in flower......... 36

Fig. 9. Sotol plant with full grown flower stem fifteen feet
| 1 IS aT MLN Gs Ey Nay se at AIR Se Maa be ASIANA ADs Cas cae 36
Fig. 10. The large mescal (Agave wislizeni) in flower........... 36
Fig. 11. Old mescal pit where the Indians roasted agaves...... 41

Fig. 12. A single well developed mescal or agave plant fit for
101] 61a aie PANO a AMON are MG A NRT aveh ty Rit Eee ata 4]

Fig. 13. Indian grinding-holes just in front of the Carlsbad
ROT EN An gee lah iy nee teed as Re SA ee On ok Ds 42

Fig. 14. Indian grinding-holes just in front of the Carlsbad
Carer Ni eer ve per ee Bs DUCA ce vil ge 42
Fig. 15. An old bull buffalo charging the camera............... 51
Fig. 16. A trio of mountain sheep in Yellowstone Park......... 52

Fig. 17. Entrance to large cavein Slaughter Canyon not far from
Carncnads Wem Memes uy een ai ON sy a aie 52
Pigode. wack Tabbit imapen valleys) hil eh le Nis 63
Fig. 19. Small cottontail (Syluilagus auduboni minor).......... 63
Fig. 20. A prairie-dog town in an alfalfa field.................. 64
Fig. 21. The prairie-dogs build mounds about their burrows... 64
Fig. 22. The cave mouse (Peromyscus leucopus texensis)........ v1
Fig. 23. The cliff mouse (Peromyscus boyliti rowleyi)............ 71
Fig. 24. Grasshopper mouse (Onychomys torridus torridus)...... 72
Fig. 25. Texas cotton rat (Sigmodon hispidus texianus)......... 72
Fig. 26. The white-throated wood rat (Neotoma albigula)...... ie

Fig. 27. House of the gray wood rat (Neotoma micropus can-

BOCETER UE ae ak NU Gh LA pe Re UNE. LGN RUBE Loran eM NE MCT ihe 77

xil

Fig.
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

. The banner-tail (Dipodomys spectabilis baileyi)........ 78
. The banner-tail (Dipodomys spectabilis baileyi)........ 78
. Little four-toes (Dipodomys merriami merriamt)....... 87
_ Little four-toes (Dipodomys merriami merriami)....... 87
. The large pocket gopher (Cratogeomys castanops)...... 88
. The large pocket gopher (Cratogeomys castanops)...... 88
. The large pocket gopher (Cratogeomys castanops)...... 88
. Texas skunk (Mephitis mesomelas vartans).........++++ 99
. Hog-nosed skunk (Conepatus mesoleucus mearnst)...... 99
. Little spotted skunk (Spilogale leucoparia)............ 100
. The ring-tailed cat (Bassariscus astutus flavus)........ 100
. Guano bat (Tadarida mexicana mexicana).........+++- 109
. Guano bat (Tadarida mexicana mexicana)..........++. 109
. Little canyon bat (Pipistrellus hesperus)..........+..- 109
. The house bat (Myotis incautus)........v.c0sccceeenes 109
. Jack-rabbit bat (Corynorhinus macrotis pallescens).... 110
. Jack-rabbit bat (Corynorhinus macrotis pallescens).... 110
. Big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus fuscus)........+-+-++- 110
. Entrance of bat cave in Dow’s Pasture, four miles west

OR GAMIBDRE Tes) Goa obey ce a as tea care 52 Go eee ele ete 137
. Slaughter Cave in Slaughter Canyon................... 127
. Entrance of McKittrick Cave, about fifteen miles west

WRENN TERNS tre se ch eict cite su teint oe fst wate steerer ee 128
. Entrance of Sevoya Cave, nineteen miles north of San

Asrtorie; TERAS. 6). vies ie eda viele nn Mala ane e 128
. Sealed quail, blue quail, or cotton-top..............+-- 131
itlentin Wren: He SUN SINPET oi Foie hsinees ce eee sees 132
. Nest of the cactus wren in cactus bush................ 137
. The cane cactus (Opuntia arborescens) in fruit......... 137
. Canyon wren. A true cave dweller..............+---: 138
. Two regurgitated pellets of the great horned owl...... 143
. Curve-billed thrasher’s nest in Spanish bayonet....... 153
. White-necked raven’s nest in top of tree yucca......... 153
Westen bull Snake. 605 ih). as. os ans oe eee ae on eee 165
. Diamond-backed rattlesnake from Texas.............. 165
. The prairie rattlesnake...............ceeeeeeeeeeeeees 166
. Black-tailed rattlesnake from Texas...............+-++ 166

. Sealy lizard (Sceloporus clarkit)..........-.eeceeeeeees 167

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Xill

Fig. 63. Desert whip-tailed lizard (Unemidophorus tessellatus)

at, Canisnad’ Caverns). cau uu runs siege ah cab cutie 167
Fig. 64. Tiger lizard (Crotaphytus wislizeni1)................... 168
Fig. 65. Western collared lizard (Crotaphytus collaris baileyi)... 168
Fig. 66. Horned toad (Phrynosoma cornutum).................. 173
Fig. 67. The vinegaroon or whip scorpion..................... 173

CHAPTER 1
LOCATION AND GENERAL FEATURES OF THE CAVERN

In the Pecos River Valley of southeastern New
Mexico, some twenty-six miles southwest of Carlsbad
and half as far from the Texas line, lies the most exten-
sive and spectacular cavern yet discovered in America,
if not in the world. Set in the foothills of the Guada-
lupe Mountains and the heart of the desert, its appeal-
ing interests have already attracted from all over the
country thousands of visitors whose numbers are ever
increasing with better roads and improved means of
access.

The cave may be reached from the east by the Santa
Fe railroad to Carlsbad, or from the west by the
Southern Pacific to El Paso, or the Texas and Pacific
to Van Horn, Texas. The only automobile roads now
available are from Carlsbad, Pecos, Van Horn, El
Paso, Tularosa, and Roswell, but these conditions will
not long persist. With the Painted Caves at the mouth
of the Pecos and the Grand Canyon of the Rio Grande
near Presidio del Norte on the south, the Painted Desert
and Grand Canyon of Arizona on the west, and the
series of national parks,—Rocky Mountain, Yellow-
stone, and Glacier,—on the north, the scenic roads of
the future will not for long ignore this subterranean
wonderland. .

Before reaching the cave from any of the ordinary
lines of travel, a long ride over level stretches of desert

1

2 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

roads, whether from Carlsbad, Van Horn, or El Paso,
will keep the tourist interested in the quaint forms of
plant and animal life not found outside of desert regions.
If the visitor should be so fortunate as to arrive in
flowering time in April or May, and after a rain, the
desert flora will burst upon him in the height of its
marvelous bloom, not rivaled by the tropics. Many a
desert thorn is then hidden by soft, glowing petals or
fresh green leaves that later drop away and leave on
all sides the repellent and threatening thorns.

Though known commercially for many years from
its rich deposits of bat guano, for as much as one hun-
dred thousand tons of this valuable fertilizer have been
shipped from the one great bat-room, the Carlsbad
Cavern and its scenic wonders were first made known
to the general public through the National Geographic
Magazine of January, 1924, shortly after it had been
set aside as the Carlsbad National Monument by proc-
lamation of President Coolidge on October 25, 1923.
The guano deposit was then nearly exhausted and
could no longer be worked at a profit, and the cave was
thus rescued for the public before being injured by
vandals, or by further commercialization.

A thorough study of its geology, structure, formation,
extent, and animal and plant life was planned and
carried out by the National Geographic Society. The
late Dr. Willis T. Lee, of the Geological Survey, was
placed in charge of the explorations, and it was my
good fortune to assist him in a study of the animal
life of the cavern and vicinity during the spring and
early summer of 1924.

GENERAL FEATURES OF THE CAVERN 3

The Carlsbad Cavern is the largest, most spectacular,
and best known of the numerous caves in the vicinity.
Some of its striking features are enormous rooms and
miles of vaulted hallways. The largest single room is
four hundred and fifty feet wide and two hundred and
fifty feet high; others approach it in size. The lowest
point in the cave floor is some seven hundred feet
below the level of the entrance, and the linear extent
of the various rooms, halls, and passageways reaches
for so many miles that days are necessary for exploring
only those that are well known.

Some of the rooms are dry and dusty, some are
moist from overhead stalactites, from the points of
which the mineral-laden water is slowly building up
groups of graceful stalagmites on the floor below, or is
forming pools of good drinking water in lime-encrusted
bowls and basins. In one of the basement rooms
named the rookery, these drops of water form clusters
of elongated or spherical nodules called ‘‘ cave pearls,”’
resembling birds’ eggs of various sizes and shapes.
Dry beds of old streams are observed, which once were
potent factors in carving the cavern out of the solid
limestone rock, or dissolving the beds of gypsum and
rock salt that once filled some of the vaulted cavities,
but no permanent running stream has been found in
the cave in recent times.

To the geologist and mineralogist the graceful, the
quaint, the grotesque, the massive secondary rock
formations decorating the interior of the cave are of
especial interest; but to the biologist the dry and dusty
rooms where animal bones and tracks have been pre-

4 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

served for years, and where the bats hang up on the
walls or ceilings for their winter sleep, are still more
attractive. Naturally, the greatest abundance of ani-
mal life is near the entrance to the cave where a trace of
twilight filters into the darkness, where some plant and
animal food falls in, and where lichens grow on the
exposed rocks, and moulds cover the damp floor and
decaying guano. Most of the insects and other small
creeping life of the cave are found in the first large hall
on either side of the main entrance, but some of the
cave crickets go to the farthest corners of the galleries
as do also the mice and cave cats or ring-tails.

The main entrance to the cavern opens into the side
and near the top of a high limestone ridge, which rises
abruptly about one thousand feet above the valley
bottom and is reached by a well graded road leading up
some three miles of the picturesque Walnut Canyon to
the spring, and then over the top of the ridge to the
great western doorway. Another natural opening
about one thousand five hundred feet farther east is a
mere break in the roof, near which two elevator shafts
have been blasted out. The great western doorway
now occupied by the stairway for descent to the first
floor of the cavern is a wide, arched portal as pictur-
esque as it is suggestive of ominous depths, making a
fitting gateway to this subterranean world. Here in
the shelter of the high arched portal, the animals, from
Indians to bats, have gathered through the ages to
take advantage of the protection of darkness and the
warmth of the cave air, that varies but little through-
out the year. Here the recently built steps go down

GENERAL FEATURES OF THE CAVERN 5

into the first great room of the cave, from which the
bat guano has been removed, and from this stairway
graded trails lead down over masses of broken rock
‘debris, over clean rock floors, down steep inclines and
through vast rooms and halls among the silent, fantastic
growths and quaint forms of crystal structure in this
great laboratory of Nature, where no breath of air has
ever stirred the delicate tracery of growing rocks.
Here in these solemn depths, wrapped in the soft, moist
air that feels fresh and inviting in the nostrils, sur-
rounded by the velvety darkness that yields grudgingly
to the little circle of the gasoline lantern or the narrow
blade of a flashlight, and swallowed up in a vast sooth-
ing silence, one realizes the spell that for ages has held
the hearts of man and beast. With a prattling crowd
this may not be felt, but alone, and especially at night,
the spell is all about and always the same restful,
soothing charm.

On a hot day in summer the peace and quiet of the
cave are best realized on returning to the glare, heat,
and noise of the surface, but scarcely more so than on
a cold day in winter, on coming from the mild soft air
below into the piercing blasts that shriek and howl
outside.

The study of the cave life has been by no means
exhaustive, either inside or around the entrance, but
enough material has been gathered to give a better
understanding of what is seen for the first time and to
form a starting point, a foundation, for more detailed
and extensive work in the future. The conditions in
the cave itself can not be fully understood without some

6 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

knowledge of the climate, physiography, and general
features of the region, all of which contribute their
own especial interests toward the pleasure of a visit to

the cave.

CHAPTER II
Lire ZONES OF THE CARLSBAD REGION

Climatic conditions are reflected in the native plant
and animal life of any region, not only in the dominance
of peculiar species and the development of such charac-
teristics as best served the plants and animals in their
habitat, but in the absence of species developed under
different climatic conditions. An occasional hot or
cold, wet or dry, year usually has little effect, as the
local plant and animal life is the product and the index
of average climatic conditions over a long period of time.

The life of the Tropics is strikingly different from that
of the Temperate zones, as is the life of these zones from
that of the Arctic zone, but the humid and arid Tropics
are also widely different in fauna and flora. Likewise,
in the several well recognized transcontinental life
zones between the Tropics and the Arctic there aremany
subdivisions based on the effects of peculiarities of
climate, mainly of different degrees of humidity. The
broad zones of similar climatic conditions extending
across the continent have a fundamental basis of tem-
perature, as has been shown by numerous authors since
the time of Humboldt. However, the details of varia-
tion have been only partially determined by recent in-
vestigations in the field, and by actually mapping the
geographic distribution of many species of plants and
animals. In New Mexico and Texas this has been
done in considerable detail and the life zones and their

7

8 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

subdivisions have been mapped and described by the
U. S. Biological Survey for each of the two states. The
map (Fig. 1) shows in greater detail the topography of |
the Carlsbad Cave region, with such additions of local
information as have been gathered during the explora-
tions of the National Geographic Society in the vicinity
of the caves.

Two of the well recognized life zones of North
America meet and blend at the Carlsbad Cave: the
Lower Austral, colored orange on the map, from below,
and the Upper Austral, shown in yellow on the map,
from above, while only fifteen miles to the westward
the higher and cooler Transition zone, tinted blue,
extends along the crest of the Guadalupe Mountains,
and the still higher and colder Canadian zone, in green,
follows the crest of the Sacramento Range some
seventy-five miles to the northwest. These four life
zones, as here shown by colors, afford a much greater
variety and richness of life in a restricted area than
could possibly be found in one uniform type of environ-
ment. They also mean a wider range of crop, fruit,
and forest products than can be found in one life zone,
as well as more varied and stimulating living conditions
for man.

The Lower Austral zone, or the Lower Sonoran arid
division of it, covers the Pecos and Rio Grande valleys
and the low country between up to an altitude of about
five thousand feet on south slopes and to about four
thousand feet on the cooler north slopes. ‘These limits
vary, however, with the steepness of slopes, the steeper
warm slopes (southern exposure) receiving more of the

Ge) TRANSITION ZONE

| Upper AusTRAL ZONE

ee Lower AusTRAL ZONE
|

Fic. 1. Lire ZoNES OF THE CARLSBAD CAVERN REGION OF NEw MExIco
AND TEXAS

By Vernon Bailey, Biological Survey, U. 8S. Department of Agriculture

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LIFE ZONES OF CARLSBAD REGION 11

sun’s rays and heat, and the steeper cold slopes
(northern exposure) being more completely cut off
from light and heat. On opposite sides of high ridges
or deep canyons running in a general east and west
direction there is often a difference of one thousand
feet in the zone levels on slopes facing north or south,
as shown by the plant and animal life. These differ-
ences are due to actual differences in temperature, as
may be seen where the snow lies long on north slopes
and disappears quickly on south slopes. The effect
of slope exposure in this region of ridges and canyons
must also be kept in mind to avoid confusion in regard
to the distribution of species, and the extent of life
zones. It should also be noted that each zone blends
into the others and is nowhere sharply defined or
bounded by a line.

The Lower Austral zone is here clearly marked by
such characteristic shrubs as the creosote bush, mes-
quite, Acacia constricta, ocotilla, allthorn, blue-thorn,
desert willow, three-leaved barberry, small-leaved sumac,
green sumac, Mexican buckeye, varnish bush, and
Baccharis; by lechuguilla, sotol, large-fruited yucca,
narrow-leaved yucca; and by numerous species of cac-
tuses, many small plants, and grasses.

While the plants are the most conspicuous and con-
venient indicators of the life zones, the native mammals,
birds, and reptiles are equally characteristic. In the
Carlsbad Cave region, the Lower Austral zone is
characterized by the Texas jack rabbit, desert cotton-
tail, Rio Grande striped ground-squirrel, cave mouse,
gray wood rat, cotton rat, large and small kangaroo

12 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

rats, pocket mice, lechuguilla pocket gopher, Rio
Grande spotted skunk, Mearns white-backed skunk,
Texas skunk, guano bat, little canyon bat, and house
bat.

Some of the conspicuous Lower Austral zone birds
are the road-runner, cactus woodpecker, Texas night-
hawk, Cassin kingbird, white-necked raven, Scott
oriole, hooded oriole, desert sparrow, painted bunting,
western mockingbird, cactus wren, and plumbeous
gnatcatcher.

Among the Lower Austral reptiles are the Texas
diamond-back rattlesnake, leopard lizard, ‘Texas
spotted-tailed lizard, Clark scaly lizard, whip-tailed
lizard, and Texas horned lizard (horntoad).

Neither plants nor animals, however, are evenly
distributed in their zones, but each species is pushing
and striving for its place in the sun, and its room in the
soil, for its right to live and reproduce its kind. No-
where is the struggle for existence more fierce and
relentless, or adaptation and specialization carried to
a higher degree, than in the desert. The slightest tilt
of level that makes available a little more sunshine or
a little more moisture, a dike that catches and holds a
little more soil and plant food, a combination of ele-
ments of earth and soil in any way favorable to plant
life, are quickly taken advantage of, not only by the
strong and vigorous, but by the small and weak, in a
test of power to take, and strength to hold, possession.
On the other hand, the unfavorable slope that with
baked surface excludes moisture, or with excess of
unfavorable mineral content bars certain forms of

Fic. 3. West ENTRANCE TO THE CARLSBAD CAVERN

The main entrance and exit of the bats and other animal life of the
cave is pierced by a narrow shaft of sunlight during a brief interval
inthe afternoon. Photograph from U.S. Geological Survey.

13

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14

LIFE ZONES OF CARLSBAD REGION 15

vegetation, may still afford a fair haven for a few
plants that can break its crust or utilize or avoid its
mineral content. Thus we have areas of infinite mix-
ture of plants and again areas of almost pure stands,
called plant associations. We may ride for miles
through a golden mantle of flowering creosote bush on
gravelly slopes, or fragrant fields of varnish bush on
the floor of the valley, or through areas of solid tobasa
grass in the path of occasionally flooded bottoms, or
among the blazing torches of ocotilla on the steepest,
hottest, and dryest slopes,—an endless variety of
plant associations, each full of meaning and of vital
significance to the student of plant ecology.

The Upper Austral zone, or its Upper Sonoran arid
division, in the Carlsbad Cave region, begins at about
the level of the cave entrance, or 4,500 feet on gentle
south slopes, but on northerly slopes it begins as low as
4,000 feet and extends up over the high mesas and foot-
hill ridges of the Guadalupe Mountains to 7,000 or
8,000 feet, according to slope exposure. On steeper
slopes these limits are somewhat extended, and on very
gentle slopes correspondingly less extreme, while such
minor factors as barrenness, color and nature of soil,
moisture and air currents, show slightly modifying
effects on zone levels.

In the immediate vicinity of the great cave, as over
much of this zone, its most striking feature is a scattered
growth of scrubby juniper, striking because the un-
mistakable dark evergreen bunches may be seen and
recognized miles away. In the rough ridge and foot-
hill country they practically fill the zone, but are absent

16 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

on the wide expanse of high level plains. Other charac-
teristic woody plants are the two other junipers, nut
pine, gray and Vasey shrubby oaks, mountain ma-
hogany, small-leaved mulberry, hackberry, Apache
plume, catsclaw, skunk bush, service berry, star leaf,
silk tassel bush, syringa bush, manzanita, many species
of rabbit brush, banana-fruited yucca, and Parry
century plant.

Some of the characteristic Upper Austral species of
mammals in the Carlsbad Cave region are the Texas
mountain sheep, gray mule deer, rock squirrel, Rowley
white-footed mouse, white-throated wood rat, gray fox,
and plateau bobcat.

The conspicuous species of birds of the zone are the
Mearns quail, poor-will, horned lark, raven, Wood-
house jay, pinyon jay, black-chinned sparrow, Scott
sparrow, canyon towhee, and Cooper tanager.

The Upper Austral reptiles are less numerous than
are those of the lower zone, but the few characteristic
species include the black-tailed rattlesnake, plains
rattlesnake, prairie bull snake, western collared lizard,
scaly fence lizard, Poinsett scaly lizard, and desert
horntoad.

The higher and less arid Transition zone, colored
blue on the map, covers a limited area along the top of
the Guadalupe Mountains, some fifteen miles west of
the Carlsbad Cave and a larger area of the Sacramento
and White Mountain plateau to the northwest.
Throughout the state it generally covers the tops of
the lower ranges and the middle slopes of the higher
ranges from about 7,000 to 8,500 feet on northerly

LIFE ZONES OF CARLSBAD REGION Soh iy

slopes and from 8,000 to 9,500 feet on southerly slopes,
varying somewhat in different ranges according to
steepness of slopes and elevation of base level. A high
valley or plain by holding the heat of the sun’s rays
higher up elevates the life zones above it, while a low
base level allows them to come lower down. In the
Guadalupe and Sacramento mountains the general
levels of the zone are about normal, but on some very
steep, dry southwest slopes Transition zone species
are dominant from 8,000 to 10,000 feet.

In New Mexico this zone is strongly marked by the
western yellow pine, with huge scaly trunks in wide
stretches of beautiful open forest, clean and grassy
underneath. Douglas spruce, southern white pine,
large-leaved maple, New Mexico oak and locust occupy
secondary places in this forest. Extensive open parks
or grassy glades appear, which along some of the stream
valleys are occupied by little farms. The great value
of this zone is its timber, grass, and water, its cool
climate, shade and beauty in the midst of a wide ex-
panse of low, hot plains.

The characteristic mammals are erie tailed and
mule deer, two species of chipmunks, a small form of
the thirteen-lined ground squirrel, the Colorado wood
rat, Guadalupe meadow mouse, fulvous pocket gopher,
mountain cottontail, and brown bat.

Some of the breeding birds of this zone in the Guada-
lupe and Sacramento mountains are the Merriam wild
turkey, band-tailed pigeon, spotted owl, screech owl,
hairy woodpecker, ant-eating woodpecker, red-shafted
flicker, broad-tailed hummingbird, green-tailed and

18 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

spurred towhees, mountain tanager, Audubon and
Grace warblers, pygmy and Rocky Mountain nut-
hatches, western robin, and chestnut-backed bluebird.

Reptiles are scarce, but an occasional western garter
snake is seen, or one of the short horned lizards or
horntoads.

Canadian zone, shown in green on the map, covers
most of the higher peaks and cold slopes of the Capitan,
White, and Sacramento mountains, and a small area on
top of the southern end of the Guadalupes. It is a
narrow, irregular, broken area that reaches its full
width only on the White Mountains. It is charac-
terized by forests of spruce, fir, and aspens, and by
many of the Rocky Mountain species of trees and
shrubs.

The mammals of this restricted area included only
half a century ago an abundance of the now extinct
Merriam elk, and still include the White Mountain
spruce squirrel, Rocky Mountain meadow mouse, two
species of little shrews, and undoubtedly the hoary and
silver-haired bats.

The breeding birds of the zone in this area are the
olive-sided flycatcher, long-crested jay, crossbills, pine
siskins, white-crowned sparrows, gray-headed junco,
Rocky Mountain creeper, red-breasted nuthatch,
golden- and ruby-crowned kinglets, and Audubon her-
mit thrush.

Hudsonian zone shows but a trace on the top and
upper cold slope of Sierra Blanca, or White Mountain
Peak, at the northern end of the Sacramento Range,
which reaches 11,880 feet elevation. This timberline

LIFE ZONES OF CARLSBAD REGION 19

zone is indicated by a few dwarfed Engelmann spruce
that reach up within about two hundred feet of the top,
and by many dwarf plants of the zone, such as Svlene,
Arenaria, Saxifraga, Rhodiola, Sedum, Orthocarpus,
Erigeron, and Ligusticum. The whole southerly slope
of the peak is bald and grassy, while the northerly slope
is steep and rocky, and the narrow crests of two lateral
ridges give scant foothold for other than dwarf plants
and have little attraction to the birds and mammals of
this zone. Still in one brief visit to the peak I noted
Clark nutcracker, Townsend solitaire, and the pipit,
probably mere visitors from the extensive areas of the
zone in the mountains of northern New Mexico.

CHAPTER 3

CONSPICUOUS VEGETATION OF THE REGION
TREES

To the tourist and the casual observer the country
about the Carlsbad Cavern might well seem treeless,
for one can sweep the circleof the horizon without recog-
nizing a tree head-high. The yuccas and sotols are
generally the tallest forms of vegetation in sight above
the rims of the canyons, unless with a field glass one
picks out the yellow pines on the Guadalupe Mountains,
or the slender lines of cottonwoods along the Pecos and
Black River valleys. The Guadalupe and Sacramento
mountains are more or less covered with cool, dark
evergreen forests. The desert cottonwoods, tall and
spreading, as they grow at Washington’s ranch on the
banks of Black River might well inspire the soul of an
artist. Admitting these as real trees, let us follow the
rocky trail over the ridge to Oak Springs, from which
the patient burro brings daily loads of water to the cave
workers, for along the cool slope of the deep little can-
yon the April air is rich with fragrance of the Mexican
madrones, with their polished red boles, large evergreen
leaves, and masses of tiny bell-shaped flowers. They
belong higher up in the mountains, but come down on
cold canyon slopes even below the level of the cave
opening as round-topped trees twenty to forty feet
high.

Several species of oaks, mainly the chestnut oak,

20

CONSPICUOUS VEGETATION OF REGION 21

attain the size of small trees in Oak Spring and other
canyons where, well sheltered from sweeping winds,
their crops of acorns have supplied food to man and
beast for untold time. Scrub oaks of several species,
rarely attaining the dignity of trees, cover many of the
more exposed slopes and still have a real value as food
and cover for stock and game.

Fair-sized black cherry trees grow along the canyon
bottoms and bear an abundance of sweet fruit for birds
and beasts. Even man enjoys their juicy richness,
with its faintly bitter tang.

In many of the gulches and canyons New Mezico
maple forms groves of small trees, affording grateful
shade, tough, hard wood, and a possible source of sweet
sap.

A small green ash often grows with the maples and
oaks and adds another source of tough, springy wood in
a country where such wood fiber is scarce and needed.

The little desert black walnut, low and spreading,
may easily be overlooked in the dry washes, but on
rich bottom land, where moisture is not too scant, it
sometimes makes trees fifteen or twenty feet high,
with trunks of fence-post size. Its feathery foliage
might almost be mistaken for that of the mesquite,
but its little, round black walnuts, the size of marbles,
often load the branches and are unmistakable. They
are as palatable as any walnuts if one has time to crack
and eat them. Once when a heavy shower kept me
waiting for half an hour under the camp wagon beside
one of these trees, I decided that I could live on walnuts
if | gave allmy time toit. The rock squirrels and wood

sla ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

rats get most of the nuts, but other rodents take a part
of each year’s crop.

Hackberries are here more often bushes than trees,
but in the canyons some grow to respectable size. Both
large and small trees are often loaded with tiny, sweet-
coated nutlets, greatly enjoyed by rodents and birds,
and when well pulverized, shells and all, make a rich,
sugary loaf of nut-bread.

Native mulberries reach small tree proportions in
moist and fertile canyons, but in the open are mere
bushes.

The Mexican buckeye, growing in the canyons, and
especially in the mouths of the large caves, is either a
small tree or large shrub, bearing dense sprays of
beautiful pink flowers in early April.

The scrubby little junipers which form a conspicuous
part of the vegetation of the hillsides, in wide bunches
four to six feet high, are kept down by wood cutters
and seekers for fence posts, and by browsing goats, so
they rarely attain tree size. They yield bushels of
sweet berries eagerly sought by goats, as well as by
coyotes, foxes, and a host of other hungry mammals and
birds. They furnish the dominant evergreen cover of
the rugged limestone ridges and have a value far beyond
that indicated by their humble appearance.

A few small trees of the silky-leaved mountain juniper
are found over the ridges a little higher up, and the
beautiful blue-leaved, round-topped, checker-barked
juniper reaches down almost to the cave.

The little nut pines or pinyon trees show along the
crest of the next higher ridge west of the cavern, and

4 *
% £ M4
é +o ‘
a4 % .

hie a Pee

Fic. 5. THe FiLoor or tHE Lowrst Room 1n THE CAVE

Here at the bottom of the swinging wire ladder, some seven
hundred feet below the surface of the ground, old skeletons and
mummies of bats were found, and also tracks of the cave mouse, and
tracks and bones of the ring-tail. Photograph from U.S. Geological
Survey.

23

Fic. 6. Toe Mesquite TREE (PROSOPIS GLANDULOSA) FULL
oF FRUIT

A tree like this will yield a bushel of long bean pods, almost as
sweet as sugar, a valuable stock food, and once an important food for
man and many other of the native animals.

24

CONSPICUOUS VEGETATION OF REGION 25

one old tree of unusual height stands against the north
face of a cliff in the canyon about two miles below the
cave entrance. An hour’s walk up the canyon would
have taken the Indians to plenty of these bountiful
nut-bearers, the sweet and delicious nuts of which fur-
nished an important part of their winter’s food.

Two small yellow pines in the mouth of Slaughter
Canyon have grown from seeds that drifted down from
the head of the canyon and here, two zones below their
real habitat, are conspicuous among the sotols, lechu-
guillas, and other Lower Sonoran plants. Many tall
trees are seen against the sky line at the head of the
canyon and beautiful groves of large trees are found
just over the main ridge of the mountains.

The mesquite (Fig. 6), although generally considered
a tree, here on the dry plains grows mostly under-
ground, sending up branches from two to eight feet
high; but occasionally in the bottom of a gulch, where
its long roots can reach water, it develops into a real,
though small, tree with spreading top, its feathery
foliage, like delicate green ostrich plumes, reminding
one of the pepper trees along California sidewalks.
After a rain its yellow catkins burst out into fragrant
bloom and a little later long, mottled bean pods hang
from the branches, becoming sweet and sugary when
ripe, and yielding a rich food for stock. Informer days
they formed also an important food for many southern
tribes of Indians. The little hard, smooth beans,
embedded in thick pods, when swallowed by stock are
neither broken nor digested, and so are widely sown
over the grazing areas.

26 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

In Garden Canyon just over the ridge from the big
cave, as in many canyons higher toward the mountains,
grow the New Mevico locust trees, similar to the fragrant
eastern locust, but with delicate pink instead of pure
white racemes of fragrant flowers; a wonderful flowering
tree that should be more widely under cultivation.

SHRUBBY VEGETATION

In the rigorous climate of arid regions with re-
duced rainfall and rapid evaporation, extremes of
summer heat and sudden changes to severe cold, where
the half-naked soils are deprived of the mellowing
effects of winter snows, and often are exposed to severe
winds that beat the branches and tug at the stems of
such hardy plants as are able to withstand the fierce
onslaught, it is not strange that the vegetation should
take on weirdforms. ‘To such plants as persist through
it all come long mild days of clear sunlight, and after
occasional showers, moist balmy nights, and days of
intense growing activity, the desert blooms in won-
derful beauty. Under no other conditions are the
survival of the fittest or the elimination of the unfit
more marked than in these arid regions of great ex-
tremes, where forests are replaced by low shrubs and
every plant is protected by some form of armor, or has
means of defense against destruction. Naturally,
under such adverse conditions, strange types of vegeta-
tion have developed. Some are highly modified forms
of common and widespread groups from the north or
south. Others are of restricted range and are not
found beyond the limits of the semidesert region. Hach

CONSPICUOUS VEGETATION OF REGION 27

has its own type of adaptation, and each plant its own
history, and its ancestry, and its struggle, that if fully
recorded, would make a fascinating story.

One of the most typical of desert plants, the ocotzla or
Devil’s walking slick (Fouquieria splendens), grows in
great abundance over the hot, rocky slopes near the
Carlsbad Cave, and stands for most of the year without
leaves or flowers, a mere cluster of dry spiny poles
rising from a single base to a height of eight or ten feet.
In early May, if there has been a recent rain, it sends
out a dense coat of small green leaves about as long as
the thorns, and a little later, long spikes of brilliant red
flowers from the tip of each stem. For a brief time
these flaming banners give color to the hillsides, and the
nectar-laden flowers are the chief attraction for many
insects, hummingbirds, orioles, and other birds of in-
sectivorous and nectar-eating habits. Soon the seeds
have ripened, the leaves have dropped off, and the
naked spiny poles stand for eleven months or longer,
waiting another springtime or another rain.

Over the dryest mesas of the Pecos Valley and ex-
tending up on the hot slopes of the ridges to the level
of the great cave the creosote bush, with distinctively
flat-topped, triangular form, and dark, evergreen leaves,
is always a striking feature. Without thorns, its soft
branches and green leaves would seem to offer tempting
forage for all browsing beasts, but a thin varnish rich
in creosote, covering the leaves and twigs, renders it
not only inedible but immune to evaporation and the
effects of long, hot periods of drought. In May, if
there has been a recent rain, these bushes burst forth

28 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

in great bouquets of buttercup-like flowers, often
spreading a golden robe for miles over the valley
country and filling the air with a pungent fragrance, not
from the flowers so much as from the fresh varnish on
the young leaves and twigs.

The bean family (Leguminosae) is represented by
such desert trees as the mesquite, but more abundantly
by numerous desert shrubs, one of the commonest of
which is the slender Acacia constricta, with delicate,
compound leaves, and straight, slender spines. In
flowering time it is covered with little golden balls of
stamens and later the slender mottled bean pods dangle
in profusion. For most of the year its naked branches
and keen pointed thorns stand repellent and apparently
lifeless.

Another common little bean bush with small, com-
pound leaves and fragrant pink flowers will be recog-
nized as the catsclaw (Mimosa biuncifera) as soon as
one comes in contact with it and has to back out pain-
fully to escape the numerous pairs of stout hooks which
protect its branches. This is the most vicious of the
several spiny bean bushes of the region, and well im-
mune to the attacks of hungry ruminants.

A large evergreen and spineless shrub of the same
family is the goat bean, or coral bean bush, found along
the canyons and cliffs and in the mouths of caves. In
April it sends out great bunches of dark blue, wisteria-
like flowers among the dark green leaves, and later
thick bulging pods of large coral-red beans, which have
the reputation of being poisonous to goats if masticated
when eaten. When swallowed whole, as they generally

CONSPICUOUS VEGETATION OF REGION 29

are, they pass through without injury to either bean or
goat and are thus scattered in many fertile spots along
the cliffs. This fact explains the abundance of the bean
bushes in the mouths of caves, where the goats com-
monly take refuge from the storms.

One of the numerous bean bushes, or shrubby le-
gumes, is the beautiful little Dalea, or Parosela formosa,
protected, not by thorns, but by numerous glands of a
rank-smelling secretion as effective as the musk of a
skunk. Even the goats do not eat it. In April it
fairly glows with tufts of small, rich purple and yellow
flowers set in a mass of silvery filaments, a combination
that tempts one to examine closely and admire
enthusiastically.

Allthorn, crown of thorns or crucifixion plant, next
to cactus the spiniest thing on the desert, grows as a
dense shrub over the valley and on warm slopes of the
ridges up to and above the cave. Its leafless, green-
barked branches and stout thorns defy man and beast,
except for the cactus wrens, thrashers, and wood rats,
which have made a truce with its dagger points and
claim its protection for nests and houses. Its incon-
spicuous, little white flowers and black berries come
only when there is enough rain to produce them, and
for most of the year the naked thorns and stems stand
at arms.

Another leafless plant of the desert is the so-called
popotillo, joint fir, or Mormon tea, a low graceful shrub
of slender green branches, rush-like in appearance, the
green bark of the stems functioning in place of leaves.
As it has no spines, or only mildly spinescent tips, to its

30 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

branches, it is generally eaten down to stumps by
goats, cattle, and horses, and perfect plants are found
only in arid wastes or on inaccessible cliffs.

The trifoliate barberry, or algireta of the Mexicans,
with its viciously spiny, three-pointed, and rigid ever-
green leaves, abundant large yellow and honey-scented
flowers, is one of the very successful shrubs of the
desert, resisting all enemies and bearing an abundance
of delicious berries, tart and refreshing when well
ripened. To the white people they suggest cranberries
and are used for jellies, but by the Indians they were
probably eaten either fresh or dried, as in camp we have
found them in either form very acceptable.

The blue-thorn (Zt yphus lycioides) is a dense shrub as
high as one’s head, growing singly or in clusters, with
small leaves on the branches and thorns and with
inconspicuous flowers and little blue berries. Almost
as spiny as the allthorn, it is one of the well armed
desert plants that can not be eaten or injured, and
offers its spiny protection to many less fortunate
plants as well as to birds and mammals.

The swmacs of some three or four species are able to
exist without thorns or active poisons, for they exude
gums of rank odor and taste that evidently help to
keep browsing animals at a respectful distance. Still
in times of scarcity of other food they are sometimes
eaten, and the berries are the food of many birds and
small mammals. The small-leaved sumac grows to be
a large dense shrub, abundant in many places. The
evergreen sumac is recognized by its large green leaves,
and the skunk bush, with its trifoliate leaves, is a low

CONSPICUOUS VEGETATION OF REGION 31

shrub of the canyons and ridges. Its pliant stems are
generally used by the Indians for making baskets.

The wild syringa, or a small-leaved form of it, is
common along the canyon walls and up into the moun-
tains, its large, white, four-petaled flowers being as
fragrant as those of the cultivated variety which grows
in dooryards both in the east and west. In some of the
open caves it crowds back well into the doorways,
where its flowers show beautifully white against the
black background.

The star leaf, Choysta dumosa, a rare desert shrub of
the low mountains and foothills, is a dense little ever-
green bush that one examines closely to see if it can be
a fern or club moss until its fragrant, apple-blossom
flowers are discovered, bedded thickly in dark green
leaves. It grows abundantly along the cold canyon
walls two miles below the great cave entrance, and still
more abundantly on the cool slopes of Slaughter Can-
yon and well back into the doorway of the Bighorn
Cave. Its beauty, fragrance, and rarity would seem to
render it worthy of cultivation, but best of all is the
thrill of its discovery in the wild remote places in which
it has made its home.

The desert willow (Chilopis linearis), not related to
the willows but with some resemblance to them in its
slender stems, narrow leaves, and its habit of growing
along the bottoms of dry washes, really belongs to the
Bignonia or trumpet-creeper family, as is readily seen
from its large, white trumpet flowers and the long
slender pods and winged seeds. It grows to be a large
shrub and is generally abundant along the bottoms of

ae ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

canyons and gulches, where it is conspicuous by reason
of its graceful form, beautiful flowers, and light-colored
spineless branches. Unarmed and seemingly unpro-
tected, it is not generally eaten by stock and evidently
proves unpalatable or unwholesome.

The gray shadscale (Atriplex canescens) would be an
abundant shrub over the desert if armed as fully as
many more fortunate plants. With fleshy, edible
leaves and twigs and no real spines for protection, it
leads a precarious existence and is crowded to nooks
and corners on the cliffs and along the sides of steep
banks, or hides under the wings of some thorny shrubs
or cactuses where a few plants can mature their four-
winged seeds and keep the species alive. No small
part of the value of thorny plants is their protection of
such weaker neighbors.

The well known grease-brush (Sarcobatus vermicula-
tus) thrives where the soil is so impregnated with soda,
gypsum, lime, and salt, that few other plants can
compete with it. On many of the “alkali” flats it is
the dominant shrub, growing in a clear stand over ex-
tensive areas, its light green and fleshy leaves testifying
to ample moisture and rich plant food. The leaves and
twigs, although strongly flavored with salt and soda, are
eaten by stock while fresh and green, but the myriad
twigs quickly harden into stout thorns that protect
the plants from complete destruction.

The cliff rose, poniel, or Apache plume (Fallugia
paradoxa), with large, white flowers and powder puffs
of plumy seeds, is thornless and edible, and is so exten-
sively eaten by stock that few plants remain in the cave

CONSPICUOUS VEGETATION OF REGION oa

region except on cliffs and ledges inaccessible to rumi-
nants. In less arid regions where there is always an
abundance of grass this shrub is little eaten; but in
the open arid region, well stocked with cattle, sheep,
or goats, it soon disappears.

The yucca family is well represented in the cave
region by three species of yuccas, or Spanish bayonets,
and by sotol and bear grass. Most conspicuous and
largest of the Spanish bayonets is Yucca macrocarpa,
often twenty or twenty-five feet high, and with a trunk
a foot in diameter inside of its rough clothing of de-
curved, rigid and sharp-pointed dead leaves. The
green leaves stand erect or slightly spreading near the
top, guarding with a circle of bayonets the great spike
of lilies that crown the stem and later the banana-like
fruit cluster of fleshy, edible pods or capsules inclosing
the myriads of flattened black seeds. The plants are
so heavily armed that only while young are their
flowers and fruit in danger from goats, cattle, and
horses. When above the reach of such enemies, they
survive for many years, beautifying the desert, scat-
tering their seeds, and offering armed protection to
nesting ravens, orioles, and crimson finches. Even the
woodpeckers burrow into their trunks and white-footed
mice and timid lizards hide among their dead leaves.

The slender-leaved Yucca radiosa (Fig. 7) out on the
flats also grows almost to tree size, the tall flower stems
often reaching six or eight feet above the ten or twelve-
foot summit of the leafy trunk, and bearing great
spikes of waxy white lilies and later dry capsules full of
innumerable flat, black seeds. While slender and not

34 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

very rigid, the leaves are so sharp-pointed as to afford
good protection to nesting birds,—white-necked ravens,
orioles, thrashers, cactus wrens, and many others.
Fortunately the plant is not edible and, since the days
when Indians used its leaves for baskets and its roots for
soap, is rarely injured by men or animals.

A low, trunkless form grows on the east side of the
Pecos River and over the Staked Plains, just as a
smaller form of Yucca macrocarpa grows over the higher
ridges of the Guadalupe Mountains.

The sotol (Dasylirion letophyllum) (Fig. 9) is one of
the most graceful and picturesque plants of the desert,
with its rounded mass of basal leaves, growing often in
hourglass form with spreading evergreen leaves above
and drooping, old, yellow leaves below, and with its
tall flower stalk bearing a graceful wand of small
creamy flowers rising fifteen or twenty feet higher.
Like many desert plants, it grows long and slowly,
storing up plant food for many years until it can make
its primal effort of blossoming and fruiting without
regard to the rains. Sometimes this effort so exhausts
it that it dies, but generally it lives to store another
reserve of food, and to blossom again and again. In
places it is the dominant plant over miles of arid,
rocky slopes. Heavily armed with stout recurved
hooks along the margins of the ribbon-like leaves, which
effectively protect its rich store of food from grazing
animals, it is often used by the ranchmen as a rescue
food for starving stock in times of drought, the stems
being split by broad cleavers so the cattle can eat out
the crisp rich hearts. To the Indians it was also a

‘

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eae eee roa ae Ni

Sracomere:

Fie. 7. THE NARROW-LEAVED Yucca (YUCCA RADIOSA)
IN FRUIT

Mockingbirds, thrashers, and cactus wrens build their nests among
the needle-pointed leaves of these yuccas and raise their young in
safety, taking advantage of the armed neutrality of the desert.

30

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36

CONSPICUOUS VEGETATION OF REGION 37

regular food, probably both cooked and raw, as charred
old leaves are found in the kitchen middens of their
eaves. The tender bases of the tip leaves eaten raw
are much like celery hearts.

The mescal (Fig. 8), or little century plant, the
lechuguilla of the Mexicans, was to the Indians the most
important plant of the region, and it is still abundant
and able to hold its own against all enemies. It is
doubly armed with keen, rigid spikes on the tip of
every dagger leaf, and savage hooks grow along both
edges of the blades as if to help it to spear and hold its
prey. It is so carefully avoided by man and beast
that there seems to be no checks on its abundance ex-
cept its own choice of situation, the shallow soil of the
arid limestone ridges, the glaring heat of the desert sun,
and a minimum annual rainfall. For it, time has no
value, for it grows when there is a shower, and rests
until there is another, storing and protecting its energy
for many years, not for a full hundred years, but pos-
sibly sometimes for a quarter or a half of a century, be-
fore venturing to send up its great stem to blossom and
bear fruit, and then to die and scatter its myriad seeds.
Just before blossoming time, when bulging with its
rich store of accumulated plant food, the mescal was
formerly gathered, roasted, and eaten by the Indians as
their most important food. Now it seems to cumber
the ground, but it is useful in protecting enough of the
grasses and forage plants to provide seed to keep the
over-stocked ranges from being completely denuded.

Numerous genera and species of cactus, from the
heavily spined Devil’s head to the slender, branching

38 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

cane cactus, the thousand-headed cliff cactus, the
broad-bladed prickly pear, and numerous little pin-
cushion kinds, form conspicuous features of the desert
flora. Their wonderful flowers of bright crimson, deep
magenta, scarlet, orange, or yellow give brilliant touches
of color, and the ripe fruit of many species is extensively
eaten by native birds and mammals while several kinds
are relished by man. For storing plant food and
moisture and then waiting for another rain, no matter
how long, and patiently hoarding for the time of flower-
ing and fruiting, few plants can equal the cactus in its
perfect adaptation to desert conditions. Most of the
species are juicy and nutritious and would be eaten by
every hungry and thirsty creature, but for the armor of
keen spines. Their moisture would also be quickly
lost by evaporation but for the impervious covering of
cellulose, which all but prevents evaporation. ‘Thus
armed and equipped they are fitted for desert life as are
few other plants.

CHAPTER 4

ANIMALS AND PLANTS OF THE REGION IN RELATION
TO THE ABORIGINES

The Carlsbad Cavern was once the center of a large
Indian population, as is shown by dozens of mescal pits
(Fig. 11) in the immediate vicinity, five of these being
at the very mouth of the largest entrance to the cave;
also by grinding-holes (Figs. 13 and 14) at the entrance,
by flint chips, broken arrow points, and bits of pottery
scattered over the ridges, by bones in burial holes in
the mouth of the cave, and by human skeletons buried
in the deep guano deposits, far back in the cave. Un-
doubtedly the Indians used the great sheltering dome
of the entrance, where a hundred or more individuals
could cook and sleep in the warm cave air, completely
protected from storms and out of danger from enemies.
That they had free entrance to the great rooms of the
cave, either along narrow shelves of rock, or by ropes or
ladders, ismore than probable, but any extensive occupa-
tion of the dark chambers would have left more evident
traces. Apparently the throat of the cave was their
main retreat for shelter, comfort, defense, and burial.

However barren and inhospitable the surrounding
country may appear to the general observer, it was a
region of abundance and even luxury to the aborigines.
The climate was mild, and with the protection from
winter storms and winds afforded by the cave, the
inhabitants needed little in the way of houses or cloth-

39

40 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

ing. Timber was scarce, but excellent fire wood in the
form of dry cactuses, bushes, sotol and yucca stems was
abundant and easily obtained without the trouble of
cutting. On the high, half-naked, limestone ridges,
rocks and stones were found for shelters and fireplaces,
and an abundance of buffaloes, elk, and deer furnished
skins for such clothing as was required.

Food, always the main factor in animal economy,
was abundant and easily obtained before the destroy-
ing white man came. Large game was to be found on
all sides. If the herds of buffaloes did not come up on
these stony ridges, they occupied the valley below,
where they could be watched for twenty miles as they
came down to the Pecos or Black rivers for water,
through deep cut trails that gave to the hunters, armed
with bows and arrows, every advantage of close range
and easy selection of choice animals. This alone would
have insured a happy Indian existence. But other
game was also abundant. Gray mule deer still roam
over the rocky ridges and hide in the narrow gulches.
Antelopes, now almost gone, occurred then in great
herds over the valley. Mountain sheep climbed over
the high canyon walls, as they do today only ten miles
to the west of the cave. The Merriam elk were then
abundant only a day’s journey in the Sacramento
Mountains. Bears and wild turkeys were within easy
reach in the gulches to the west, and probably came to
the very door of the cave, but these animals were
sacred to some of the southwestern Indian tribes and
were not used as food. Small game was also abundant
and easily procured. Jack rabbits, which today com-

Upper: Fic. 11. Otp Mrscat Pir WHERE THE INDIANS ROASTED
AGAVES

The stones were thrown back in a circle when the mound of roasted

mescal was last uncovered, perhaps one hundred or many hundreds
of years ago.

Lower: Fic. 12. A SINGLE WELL DEVELOPED MeEscAL OR AGAVE

PLANT Fit For ROASTING

With a mass of rich food stored in its central core, protected by the
rigid spikes and vicious hooked teeth of the leaf blades.

41

Figs. 13 anp 14. O_p INDIAN GRINDING-HOLES JUST IN FRONT OF THE
CARLSBAD CAVERN

Here the acorns, mesquite beans, and many of the native seeds
were reduced to meal or flour for food.

42

ANIMALS AND PLANTS OF THE REGION 43

prise the principal wild life to be seen in the valley,
were then tame enough for good hunting with bows and
arrows. Cottontails are still abundant in the valleys
and on the ridges, while fat rock squirrels occupy the
canyon walls and are easily caught in dead falls made
of flat stones tilted up on a notched stick. Populous
prairie-dog towns are still found at the base of the hills,
and their fat little occupants are easily obtained. But
most abundant, most easily obtained, and most de-
licious of all the small game are the two species of wood
rats (Neotoma micropus and N. albigula) that live in the
cliffs and cracks of the rocks, even far down the throat
of the cave, and make their houses of sticks, stones, and
thorns under cactus, mesquite, and all thorn bushes,
and in the dagger-bristling bunches of yuccas or
lechuguillas. Anyone who could not go out with a long
stick and catch a meal of wood rats before supper would
not be much of a hunter. Kangaroo rats, pocket
gophers, and ground squirrels were always available,
but probably were rarely needed for food.

Sealed quail (cotton-tops) were, and still are, abun-
dant and easily trapped or shot at the water holes, and
the beautiful speckled Mearns or fool quail, so tame as
to be easily killed with a stick, are still found on the
ridges above the cave.

A few years ago great numbers of geese, ducks, coots,
cranes, herons, and other water birds and waders win-
tered along the Pecos, and considerable numbers still
do, while big catfish, hard and soft-shelled turtles, and
heavy-shelled mussels gave a good variety of game
fully appreciated by the aborigines, if the old camp-

44 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

fire stones, flint chips, bits of bone, and clam shells
uncovered among the sand dunes along the river banks,
can be accepted as evidence.

The Mexican beaver and the Pecos muskrat found
in the Pecos and Black rivers doubtless furnished both
food and warm clothing, as may also have done to some
extent the raccoon, the ring-tail, the gray fox, the bob-
cat, the coyote, and three genera of skunks; so with
buffalo skins for moccasins and tepees, and with buck-
skin, antelope, and mountain sheep skins for general
clothing, there was no lack of dress material.

Important as was the animal food to a primitive
people, the plant food was no less so. Of edible, un-
cultivated plants, few regions could be more bountiful.
First and foremost in inexhaustible abundance over
hundreds of square miles of rocky ridges grows to this
day the little mescal, the lechuguilla of the Mexicans,
a small century plant, or agave, with spiked and jagged
leaves clustered around a large heart stored with choicest
plant food, intended to produce a tall stalk of nectar-
laden flowers and a million seeds as the crowning effort
of the plant before dying and shriveling away to make
room for its progeny. Just before this final triumph
of its many years of growth and storage, the storehouse
being full to bursting with rich food, the mescal head
was gathered by the Indians, and with dozens of other
similar heads was thrown into a dying bonfire of coals
and ashes, which was then buried under a pyramid of
small stones. Dry wood was then piled over this and
set on fire and the mescal heads were left to cook for a
couple of days and nights. The half-cooled mound

ANIMALS AND PLANTS OF THE REGION 45

was then opened, the stones thrown back in a wide,
craterlike rim, and the well cooked heads carefully
removed and opened. ‘The rich food was taken out and
eaten, or was placed in baskets or spread out on clean
stones to dry in great slabs that would keep for months.

Years ago Gen. H. C. Merriam, who had trailed
bands of raiding Apaches, described to me the freshly
opened mescal pits with their delicious food somewhat
like candied sweet potatoes, and told of long swift
journeys made by the Indians, each with a slab of dried
mescal tied to his saddle.

With mescal, and perhaps sotol (pronounced soto) as
vegetables, it is probable that these Indians did not
cultivate squashes, melons, corn, and beans as exten-
sively as did the Pueblo tribes farther west. For nut
bread they had an abundance of acorns from three or
more species of oaks growing in the gulches, and from
other species a little higher up in the Guadalupe Moun-
tains. Four well worn grinding-holes at the entrance
to the cave were probably used for grinding acorns,
but may have been also used for crushing the sugary
pods of mesquite beans, of which the Indians make a
sweet and very nutritious cake. The valuable, food-
producing mesquite bush covers practically the whole
Pecos Valley and the warm slopes of the ridges to above
the cave. The little black walnuts grow in great pro-
fusion in the wider gulches, the nuts of which although
delicious are so small that one must work half the day
to get a good meal from them. Wild onions, wild
potatoes, and other bulb and tuber-bearing plants are
still found here. The seeds of grasses and of a great

46 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

variety of plants may have furnished the Indians with
flour and meal, but to what extent they were used, or
what kinds were used, will never be known, as many
of the native plants have disappeared as completely
as have the original inhabitants of the cave country.

For fruits there are an abundance of petaya, the most
juicy and delicious of all the cactus fruits, the purple
figs of the prickly pear, the tart scarlet berries of the
Mamamillaria cactus, wild cherries and grapes in the
canyons, and the algireta or spiny-leaved Berberis
trifoliata, the best of all the barberries. A little higher
in the mountains wild currants, gooseberries, service
berries, and manzanita berries are to befound. Hack-
berry trees are abundant in the canyons, and their rich
meats with a sweet coating make a palatable cake when
the thin shells are well pulverized. Whether or not
these nuts were used as food by the Indians, however, is
not known. Sweetness was not generously provided
by nature in this land of abundance, but the little New
Mexico maple, common in the canyons, may have
supplied a limited quantity of syrup or sugar.

These mere hints of the native food supply may well
have left out many of the best and most important
sources, but they are sufficient to indicate a land of
plenty containing many of the comforts of wild life.
Even some of the luxuries were not omitted, for wild
tobacco still grows along the hot slopes of the canyons
and more abundantly along the sandy banks of the
Pecos, while two or three species of wild tea, Ceanothus,
grow near enough to furnish a supply of this beverage.

Many sweet-scented herbs and shrubs, including

ANIMALS AND PLANTS OF THE REGION 47

mints, sages, and sweet grass, are still found here, and
furnish the favorite perfumes of many tribes of Indians.

Water, noted for its scarcity, is not so scarce as it
seems when all the hidden springs and pot holes are
known. Almost every cave contains plenty of water
for drinking and cooking purposes, even if this has to
be caught in jars set under slowly dripping stalactites,
and most contain pools of clean, cold water. Many
deep pot holes in the rocky beds of canyons and side
gulches hold water from one rain almost to another,
and if covered with slabs of rock will hold it for an
indefinite period. ‘There are always good springs or
streams within reach even in dry times, but a knowledge
of the game of locating the water holes was of vital
importance in occupancy of the desert.

Economy of the water supply may have rendered
soap a luxury, but various roots, especially those of the
‘“soapweed,’’ Yucca radiosa, provided an ample supply
of soap when needed, and of a quality still appreciated
by many.

Materials for baskets were found in the pliant stems
of skunk bush, the tough leaves of yuccas and bear
grass, and the black fibers of the unicorn plant, while
many variously colored stems and roots gave beauty
of pattern. The pinyon tree furnished pitch for water-
proofing the water baskets, which were lighter and
more durable than pottery, and a bunch of fresh green
grass or leaves served as a convenient cork to keep the
water in and the insects out. Baskets for every house-
hold need are still made and used by the Mescalero
Indians, and older types are found in the burial caves of
the aborigines.

48 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

Pottery clay of excellent quality and various colors is
found in many of the caves, and in the great Carlsbad _
Cavern it lies in deep beds, moist and ready to be
moulded into household utensils. Bits of broken
pottery observed around the mouth of the cave and in
the old mescal pits show good workmanship and varied
patterns and designs of decoration.

To what extent paints and dyes were used can not
be fully known, nor can the source of supply, but beds
of bright red and yellow clays are found at no great
distance. The black designs so common on the pottery
may have been of mineral origin, or charcoal burned
into the clay.

Native plant dyes are varied enough to stimulate
the artistic senses so marked in some and deficient in
other tribes of primitive peoples.

So far as known at present, this cave region was the
stronghold of the warlike Apaches from the time of
Coronado in 1540 until about 1870 when they were
driven out by the white settlers. How far back their
occupancy reaches, or who lived there before them, is
not well known, but it is little wonder that they fought
long and savagely for their land of comfort and plenty.

CHAPTER 5

MAMMALS OF THE REGION

In the area surrounding the Carlsbad Cavern and
extending about forty miles from the Pecos River at
four thousand feet altitude on the east, to the top of
the Guadalupe Mountains above nine thousand feet
on the west, three of the transcontinental life zones are
represented, each characterized by a considerable
variety of animal life. Above the valley floor to the
west, long limestone ridges and benches rise higher and
higher to the ragged crest of the range, and are deeply
cut through by numerous steep gulches and picturesque
canyons. Great numbers of small caves open in the
canyon walls, and many extensive caverns have been
discovered all occupied to some extent by the animal
life of the region. Some of the animals are dependent
upon the caves and many others are influenced by
them.

No attempt has been made to obtain a complete list
of the mammals of this area, but about fifty species
are known to occur, and further study will add others.
The buffalo and Merriam elk, formerly abundant, and
the less common grizzly bear, are gone, but some of the
other large game animals are still found in numbers.

BUFFALO

Bison bison bison (Fig. 15)

In 1540, Coronado had his first view of the Pecos
River and of the buffalo at about the same time and
49

50 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

place, near where the Santa Fe railroad now crosses the
river at Ribera; and in 1584, Antonio de Espejo traveled
down the Pecos River Valley from this point one
hundred and twenty leagues, “‘all the way through
great heard of buffaloes.’? Other early writers spoke
of the abundance of buffaloes in this valley, which ap-
parently marked their westernmost limit in New
Mexico within the period of its written history. It
was the hunting and fighting ground of native tribes of
Indians from farther west, who came to get a supply of ©
buffalo meat, but made little impression upon the
great herds that grazed over the grassy valley and
watered at the great river or at the many smaller
streams and pools to the west. With the coming of
white men, the buffaloes were rapidly destroyed or
driven back, and the last of which we have record were
killed in the valley in 1884 and 1885. Up to 1900 their
old trails leading down from the plains and the deep cuts
worn into the Pecos River banks were still conspicuous
landmarks, but now these old trails have been so long
used by domestic stock as to have lost much of their
original character, and with them the last traces of the
buffalo have all but disappeared from the valley.

A herd of domesticated buffaloes (numbering in 1923
about fifty-four) is kept on the McKenzie Ranch near
Fort Sumner, and in 1925 thirty-three buffaloes were
reported on the Bell Ranch, while several other pri-
vately owned herds are kept in western Texas. A
stray buffalo bull wandering up and down the Pecos
Valley near Carlsbad during the spring of 1924, was
driven into a corral, teased into a fighting fury and

Fig. 15. AN Otp BuLut BurraLo CHARGING THE CAMERA

This bull had evidently escaped from a tame herd in the Pecos
River Valley, but when driven into a corral near Carlsbad and photo-
graphed in April, 1924, his tameness had entirely disappeared.

ol

sie Pe ifn ot

‘t=

Upper: Fic. 16. A Trio or MOUNTAIN SHEEP IN YELLOWSTONE PARK

LOWER: Fic.17. ENTRANCE TO A LARGE CAVE IN SLAUGHTER CANYON
NoT Far FROM CarLsBAD, NEw MExIco

This cave has been used for ages by mountain sheep as a refuge
from storms and from heat and cold.

52

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 53

photographed by a crowd of excited spectators, then
turned out to roam again over the valley. From just
below the great Carlsbad Cavern the wide plains stretch
eastward to the low horizon of the Llano Estacado,
and before the white man came, the view over the
valley must often have included vast herds of buffaloes.

The buffalo is our largest North American repre-
sentative of the Bovidae or Ox family, large bulls some-
times weighing upwards of two thousand pounds and
cows one thousand two hundred pounds.

TEXAS MOUNTAIN SHEEP; BIGHORN

Ovis canadensis texiana (Figs. 16 and 17)

The herds of Texas bighorns, which have long strug-
gled for existence in the Guadalupe Mountains on both
sides of the state line, are just about holding their own
against predatory animals and predatory man. The
most optimistic estimate of their numbers in the whole
of the Guadalupe Range does not run above a hundred
individuals, although there is ample room and ideal
range for several thousand. They are scattered along
the heads of Slaughter, Big, Franks, Gunsight, McKit-
trick, and Guadalupe canyons, mainly on the eastern
slope of the range. Formerly they came down to
Rattlesnake Canyon, and undoubtedly to Walnut and
Dark canyons even below the present level of the
Carlsbad Cave.

I found these sheep on April 29 and 30, in Slaughter
Canyon, where fresh tracks and trails were conspicuous
in one of the big caves high up on the canyon side.

54 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

For ages evidently this cave has been used by consider-
able numbers of bighorns as a refuge from storms, and
the spring, or drip pool, of excellent water in the far
end of the cave seems to be visited at all seasons. A
good sheep trail led into the cave from the rough ledges
half-way up the terraced canyon wall, while fresh
tracks and beds showed in the old, deep covering of
sheep manure on the floor. A few very old skulls of
mountain sheep were picked up near the doorway of
the cave. The cave room, one to two hundred feet
wide, by four hundred feet long and seventy-five feet
high, half-lighted by a great arched opening on the west
side and a small doorway on the east, affords an ideal
shelter for comfort and protection. It is one of the
caves showing no signs of human habitation, but was
probably used as a game trap by human occupants of
neighboring caves, as well as by predatory animals.
Bear tracks are sometimes found in the cave, but the
sheep would have a fair chance of escape from either
bears or mountain lions, as the cave is large and open,
and the sheep lie on the high slope of broken rocks,
which gives them the advantage of a mountain slope
for protection and escape.

Another larger cave in the head of Big Canyon is
said to be much frequented by mountain sheep. ‘There
are also hundreds of smaller caves with wide open
fronts all along the canyon walls, affording protection
from storms and helping to make this an especially
favorable range. The mountain slopes are densely
covered with chaparral, mountain plants and grasses.
The sheep are especially fond of the browse of mountain

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 55

mahogany, syringa, Ceanothus, and other common
shrubs, and feed to a great extent on the smaller plants,
and probably to some slight extent on grasses. They
have no competitors in the range except mule deer, as
horses, cattle, and domestic sheep and goats do not
penetrate to these steep, rough, upper slopes, and the
forage is untouched except by game animals, which at
present make little impression upon it.

The whole summit and eastern slope of the Guada-
lupe Mountains from Guadalupe Peak in Texas north
to Dog Canyon in New Mexico should be a game
refuge. It could easily support at least one thousand
bighorns and five thousand mule deer, as the deer range
lower and more widely than the sheep. If the game
were protected, and their natural enemies were de-
stroyed, the range would soon be fully stocked. Under
intelligent control and a definite plan for use of the
game, either for hunting or stocking other ranges, it
should be not only self-supporting but a valuable
property.

The Texas bighorn differs from the Rocky Mountain
species in slightly paler colors and heavier dentition,
and occupies a lower zone.

PRONGHORN ; ANTELOPE

Antilocapra americana americana

Antelopes are still fairly common in places within
sight of the cave. On April 30, 1924, O. G. Babcock
saw two not far from the road near Loving, a small
town just south of Carlsbad, and several small herds

06 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

were reported south of the cave, just over the Texas
line. Marvin Livingston told me there were about
forty antelopes on his ranch, some thirty-five miles
east of Carlsbad, and he estimated five hundred in
eastern Eddy and western Lee counties. It is largely
through the efforts of intelligent and public-spirited
ranch owners that any individuals remain, for the
problem of legal protection has been exceedingly diffi-
cult on these wide, open areas where the antelope once
roamed in untold numbers. Legal and official aid
alone can never save them, but local interest and
vigorous action on the part of the residents can do much
to postpone and possibly prevent the national disgrace
of allowing this unique species, one of our most interest-
ing game animals, to be exterminated.

The pronghorn is not a true antelope, but belongs to
a family of its own, peculiar to North America and
characterized by deciduous horns with a single flat-
tened prong at one side.

MERRIAM ELK; ARIZONA WAPITI

Cervus canadensis merriamt

The Merriam elk are gone from the Guadalupe and
Sacramento mountains, where they were once abun-
dant and from which area they may well have moved
in winter down to the Mescalero Cave level. At any
rate they were within an easy day’s hunting trip from
the cave and undoubtedly afforded one of the important
sources of game and food supply for the local aborigines.

A set of horns of this elk, picked up near the head of

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 57

Ruidosa Creek about thirty years ago, was seen at the
home of Marvin Livingston in Carlsbad. They are of
a three- or four-year-old bull, rather light, but with
the full equipment of six points each. They show no
marked subspecific characters, but heavier horns with
part of the skull attached, found on the upper Penasco
in 1902, served to identify this southern form of elk,
which is now extinct and represented by only a few
museum specimens.

The Merriam elk is a large form with very heavy
antlers, and in coloration and general appearance differs
little from the Rocky Mountain elk.

PLAINS WHITE-TAIL DEER
Odocoileus virginianus macrourus

A few white-tail deer still cling to the ‘‘shinnery”’ of
the sand dune region east of Carlsbad, where they are
to some extent protected by the large ranch owners.
Without such interested protection they would long
ago have disappeared from this open and easily acces-
sible country, and the spirit in which it has been given
to such rare animals is highly commendable.

A few white-tail deer also live in the region between
the Upper Penasco and Ruidosa along the eastern edge
of the Mescalero Indian Reservation. This is often
spoken of as the white-tail country, as it is the only
place in these mountains where these animals occur.

The plains white-tail deer is a pale western form of
the Virginia white-tail, with small ears, long, bushy
tail, and the prongs of the antlers rising from a single
beam.

58 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

GRAY MULE DEER
Odocotleus hemionus canus

The gray mule deer are still common in the canyons
and gulches west of the Carlsbad Cavern, and increas-
ingly more abundant farther back toward the Guada-
lupe Mountains. On the upper slopes of Slaughter
Canyon, above the range of Angora goats, they are so
abundant as to make good trails over the chaparral-
covered slopes. Much of the country is so rough that
domestic stock does not compete with mule deer and
bighorns for the abundant browse on these wild and
picturesque upper slopes, which will always have a
greater value for game than for other purposes. Abun-
dance of mountain mahogany, syringa, Ceanothus, scrub
oak, and manzanita afford favorite food at all seasons
and would support a far greater deer population than
is found there at present. The mule deer range is
mainly on land that has been withdrawn from
entry and which should be kept for game and recrea-
tional purposes. It is unsuited for agricultural use,
but is wildly picturesque and full of interesting plant
and animal life. It is only necessary to control preda-
tory animals and hunting to increase the game animals
to any desired numbers.

The gray mule deer is a pale desert variety of the
Rocky Mountain form, with the same large ears, small,
black-tipped tail, and doubly forked antlers.

-

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 59

PECCARY; HAVELIN
Pecart angulatus angulatus

The Texas collared peccary, or havelin, still inhabits
the ‘“‘shinnery”’ of the Mescalero sands along the east
side of Pecos River, thirty-five miles east of Carlsbad.
Two were killed here about ten or twelve years ago,
but the small remnant is protected by the ranchmen
on whose land the animals range. Several skins and
mounted heads were seen at the home of Marvin
Livingston, who greatly prizes not only the peccaries
but the antelopes and white-tail deer on the Livingston
ranch.

These little tailless pigs with dark gray coats, marked
by light-colored collars, are peculiar to America.

VIRGINIA OPOSSUM
Didelphis virginianus

Opossums barely reach the southeastern corner of
New Mexico, but recently a few have escaped from
captivity at Carlsbad, where they might: easily become
established as successful residents under the advantage
of cultivated land, good cover, and abundant and
varied food supply. The whole Pecos Valley will un-
doubtedly become the home of these peculiar animals,
which thrive even in populous areas because of their
great fecundity and tenacity of life, in spiteof numerous
enemies and edible qualities. Generally their value
for fur and food more than compensates for occasional
mischief in hen houses, and places them in the class of
game rather than of vermin.

60 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

The opossums are our only representatives in the
United States of the great order of marsupials, or
pouched mammals, and are easily recognized by the
abdominal pouch in which the young are carried, by
the long, nearly naked, and prehensile tail, and the
naked ears, sharp nose, and pretty gray fur.

TEXAS ARMADILLO
Dasypus novemcinctus texanus

The Texas armadillo strays into southeastern New
Mexico at times, but can scarcely be claimed as a
regular inhabitant. One was found near Carlsbad in
February, 1924, but whether it was killed or was
allowed to go free, I did not learn. They are wholly
useful and entirely harmless animals and should be
protected and encouraged rather than destroyed. The
use of their shells as baskets should be condemned and
discouraged in every locality.

The armadillo is known by the hard shell covering
its body, which is rendered flexible by nine movable
bands across the back.

TEXAS JACK RABBIT
Lepus californicus texianus (Fig. 18)

The large, gray Texas jack rabbits are abundant over
the valley country, but they rarely get up on the rocky
ridges around the cave, nor nearer than the edge of the
flats a couple of miles to the south. Still their bones
form a part of the refuse under the owls’ nests in the

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 61

mouth of the cave, and rabbits undoubtedly formed no
small part of the meat supply of the aborigines who
formerly inhabited the cave and the adjacent region.
Over the valley country they are the most conspicuous
animals, half a dozen being often seen from one point
as they feed on the tender growth of early spring vege-
tation, sit in the shade of desert bushes, or go loping
away from the roadside. Two or three dozen were
usually seen on a trip from the cave to Carlsbad, a
distance of twenty-six miles, but most of these were in
two or three low basins where vegetation was getting
an early start. Out over the dry flats and ridges only
an occasional rabbit was seen, and their total numbers
would probably not average more than three to a
square mile of the valley country. In this scattering
and about normal abundance they are of little economic
importance and may prove an asset rather than a lia-
bility, for they help to feed the coyotes, eagles, hawks,
and owls and thus prevent more serious depredations
on live stock and game. The grass and weeds eaten
by the rabbits are mainly good stock food, and a con-
siderable increase in the number of rabbits would
seriously impair the grazing capacity of these arid
valleys.

One full-grown, old male jack rabbit, shot for ex-
amination, weighed 64 pounds, and measured in total
length 600 millimeters; tail vertebrae, 70 mm.; hind
foot, 133 mm.; and ears from crown to tip, 160 mm.
This was an average and not an-extremely large animal.
The contents of its stomach, half full of green food,
weighed 59 grams, and when air-dried 15 grams, show-

QolcA?

62 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

ing aloss of about 75 per cent by weight of water. Its
bladder was distended with fluid from the excess mois-
ture of its food above the little carried away by the
relatively dry pellets. This faculty of extracting mois-
ture from their food readily explains the ability of
these animals to exist in arid regions at long dis-
tances from water, and actually to live their whole
lives without ever drinking water. ‘They are one of
the many species of rodents thus perfectly adapted to
desert life.

This large jack rabbit is recognized by its very long
legs and ears, its general light gray color, and black
upper surface of the tail.

SMALL COTTONTAIL

Sylvilagus auduboni minor (Fig. 19)

These little cottontail rabbits live all over the Pecos
Valley and on the limestone ridges about the Carlsbad
Cavern. They are most numerous close to the cave
buildings, where coyotes are kept away by the presence
of people and dogs, and where safe shelter is found in
the rocks on the canyon sides. No cats were kept at
the cave camp, and the one little yellow dog did not
chase rabbits and would not have killed a mouse, but
he barked at night and probably helped to keep away
coyotes and other animals. These rabbits are also
abundant in the prairie-dog towns of the valley below,
living in the burrows and keeping as close to these
underground strongholds as do the prairie-dogs, and
seeking them as promptly when danger threatens.

> ~ _ - wa > > 2 . ° * %& > Ps - Ye —

ee fe © a ie aCe nas ian aes ae SR PE a

= - ; cs y de EE de ME eae Ga eet GR ges erm oe =m

* 5 ae — J © reas a DRO ee Fa PR eh

Upper: Fic. 18. JacK Rasppit IN OPEN VALLEY, WITH PLENTY OF
Room to UsE 1Ts Eyes, Ears, AnD LEGS

Lower: Fic. 19. SMALL CorronTaIL (SYLVILAGUS AUDUBONI MINOR)

In the open country these little cottontails depend on burrows of
badgers and prairie-dogs for protection.

63

Upper: Fic. 20. A PRAIRIE-poG TowN IN AN ALFALFA FIELD
Near Carlsbad, New Mexico, in 1901

Lower: Fia. 21. THe Prarrite-pocs Burup Mounps aBoutT THEIR
BuRROWS
This prevents the water from running down them in case of heavy

rains.
64

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 65

Keen eyes and ears and quick legs are the only defense
or protection of these timid little folk, but in spite of
rocks and burrows, the great numbers of their bones
found in the owl pellets in the cave show how exten-
sively they are preyed upon. Apparently more of
their bones occur under the owl nests than do those of
any other mammals, except possibly those of wood
rats, which are about equally abundant. On March
25, about half of a freshly killed cottontail was found
in the nest with three young of the great horned owl,
and the crops of the downy young about five days old
were bulging with the tender rabbit meat, picked off
and fed to them by the mother bird.

Generally, the cottontails are healthy and good
eating. The half-grown young are especially delicious,
and there are usually plenty of them for camp meat
during the summer when other game is out of season.
To the aborigines they doubtless were an important
source of food supply.

Long accustomed to desert conditions, these rabbits
are entirely independent of any supply of drinking
water, and get an abundance of moisture from their
green food. In winter there is always cactus to be
found, while many plants store moisture in under-
ground roots, bulbs, and tubers, always available to
such rodents as know where to find them.

This little cottontail is one of the smallest of our
rabbits of this group, with rather prominent ears and
a short, puffy, turned up tail showing the white lower
surface.

66 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

ROCK SQUIRREL
Citellus grammurus grammurus

The rock squirrels can climb trees, and would do so
if there were any near, but they are generally found,
as their name implies, among the rocks. At the Carls-
bad Cavern they are common along the canyon walls
and around the entrance, but only in a very small way
are they cave dwellers. They often live in little caves
or in clefts of the rocks, or under heaps of broken rock
talus where the cavities are small enough to exclude
such enemies as foxes, bobcats, ring-tails, skunks, and
other carnivores. They are sturdy animals, and fierce
fighters when cornered, but really they are timid and
shy, and their main protection lies in rocky cover and
eternal vigilance. They are often seen sitting up on
rocks or points of the cliff on the watch for enemies, and
when danger approaches they give a sharp whistle as a
warning to friends and families, and all rush to cover.
A few living in the low cliffs near the cave shaft came
regularly for the grain scattered for them and the quail.
They were often seen sitting on the rock pile below the
bunk house, but quickly disappeared if a person ap-
proached. With continued feeding and protection they
would become very tame and would be a source of
much interest and pleasure to visitors at the cave. In
spring they are especially eager for grain or any extra
food available, but later when the little black walnuts
and acorns are matured, they find an abundance of
rich food and become very fat. They are as good eat-
ing as any squirrels. One that I took for a specimen,

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 67

after the skin and skull had been saved and the
stomach examined for notes on food habits, furnished
me a hearty lunch when I was out all day in Walnut
Canyon.

The rock squirrels are large, heavy-bodied, bushy-
tailed, gray animals of the ground-squirrel group, about
the size of the eastern gray squirrel.

MEXICAN GROUND-SQUIRREL
Crtellus mexicanus parvidens

These large, striped-backed ground-squirrels are com-
mon in the Carlsbad region and over the Pecos Valley,
but none was seen up on the ridges near the cave.
They are burrowing animals and mainly restricted to
the mellow-soiled valley country, or where they can
find easy digging for their burrows under mesquite,
creosote, or other sheltering bushes. The first one
seen was on March 11, the day of my arrival, which
may well have been about their first appearance from
hibernation. Others were occasionally seen on warm
days during most of my stay, or up to May 3, and all
had the long fur and large bushy tails of the winter
coat. Rarely are they so numerous as to be of any
serlous economic importance, and the slight damage
they sometimes do to crops may well be compensated
by their destruction of weed seeds and insects.

The Mexican ground-squirrel is easily recognized by
its striped back, short ears, and long, slender tail. It
is much smaller than the rock squirrel and lives in the
valley.

68 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

BLACK-TAILED PRAIRIE-DOG
Cynomys ludovicianus (Figs. 20 and 21)

Colonies of these plump little yellowish burrowing
squirrels are scattered over the Pecos Valley and on
many of the more fertile mesas and mountain slopes.
They are generally located on the richest and mellowest
soil, where digging is easy, and where the short grass
and low vegetation furnish abundant food. Sometimes
a colony will cover hundreds of acres, comprising
thousands of burrows and great numbers of prairie-
dogs; again there will be only a dozen burrows and
about as many occupants, and on rare occasions one or
two are found alone. Naturally they are not on the
limestone ridges about the cave, but they are common
along the Black River Valley only two miles to the
south, where they lay a heavy tax upon some of the
best forage. In places they have dug up and entirely
destroyed the vegetation on considerable areas and
have been forced to move on to find a better food
supply. They prove a serious handicap to stock rais-
ing as well as to any form of agriculture, and are gener-
ally destroyed in every way possible, mainly by means
of poisoned grain scattered about their burrows.

These prairie-dogs are really large plump squirrels
with little, short, flipping, black-tipped tails, short ears,
short yellowish fur, and voices somewhat like the yip,
yip, yip, of a small dog.

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 69

CAVE MOUSE
Peromyscus leucopus tornillo (Fig. 22)

The only mammals living their entire lives, being born
and reaching old age, in the dark depths of the great
cavern, are the cave mice, or the west Texas form of the
white-footed mice, near relatives of our eastern white-
footed or deer mice. They are rather large, heavy
bodied mice with not very long tails, and specimens
from the cave seem to differ from those outside only in
larger size and better development, differences easily
accounted for by protection from natural enemies, long
life, and abundance of food. Evidently they have not
been restricted to the cave long enough to have under-
gone important physical changes. They may origi-
nally have fallen in, and not being expert climbers were
unable to climb out, and so adapted themselves to cave
life and wandered to the farthest rooms. If so, their
imprisonment would probably extend back only about
twenty-four years, or to the time when the guano came
up much nearer to the entrance and must have made
the exit comparatively easy. .

These mice are fairly common in the King’s Palace
and especially in the lunch room beyond, all through
the great south room, and in the deep room below it,
reached by a hundred-foot wire ladder, as well as in
the guano rooms and large halls near the entrance to
the cavern. Their little round tracks and well-worn
trails usually follow the edge-of the walls, or cut across
from one point of rocks to another, taking the shortest
lines of travel from one protecting cover to another.

70 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

How they find their way about or locate their food in
the utter darkness is still a cave mystery. ‘Their eyes
appear normal, and they can see well when brought
out to the light, although many of those born and
raised in the far rooms could never have seen a ray of
‘light before. They are no different in color from those
living outside, a dull buffy gray above and white below.
Occasionally one running over the floor of the cavern
was seen by lantern light, but most of those taken were
caught in traps set along the runways and baited with
rolled oats. More were caught in the daytime than at
night, but probably there is no difference in the periods
of their activity unless in the first large rooms where a
faint trace of light from the openings would make it
possible for them to see during the daylight hours.
That they are permanent residents of the cave is shown
by the fact that most of the females caught were nurs-
ing young or contained three to six embryos. Most of
those caught in March and April were adults, for the
young were not yet large enough to run about or get
into traps. Those taken were larger and fatter than
the same species caught outside, evidently as a direct
result of comfortable climate and abundant food.

The stomachs of those taken for specimens were
filled with remains of cave crickets, in addition to re-
mains of tourists’ lunches and rolled oats used for trap
bait. The crickets, which are abundant throughout
the cave, seem to be their main and only permanent
source of food supply.

The cave mouse with medium long tail differs from
the eastern white-footed mouse mainly in slightly paler
gray brown color.

Upper: Fic. 22. Tae Cave Mousr (PEROMYSCUS LEUCOPUS
TEXENSIS )

The only mammal found living permanently throughout the great
Carlsbad Cavern.

Lower: Fia. 23. Tor Ciirr Mousr (PEROMYSCUS BOYLII ROWLEYI)

Common in the first rooms of the great cavern

71

Upper: Fic. 24. GrassHopprerR Mouse (ONYCHOMYS TORRIDUS
TORRIDUS)

An insect-eating rodent of the arid region

Lower: Fig. 25. Texas Corron Rat (SIGMODON HISPIDUS
TEXIANUS)

A small rodent of the grassy valley bottoms
72

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 73

CLIFF MOUSE
Peromyscus boylit rowleyt (Fig. 23)

The only other species of mouse in the cavern is the
cliff mouse, a slender, graceful, large eared little animal,
with a long, hairy tail, and a famous rock dweller and
cliff climber of the deer mouse group. Specimens were
taken in the first rooms of the cave only, and none be-
yond the traces of daylight that came in through the
natural openings. Some of those caught in the cave
had green food in their stomachs, telling of visits to the
upper world of light and green vegetation, while others
on the cave floor, two hundred feet below the surface,
were feeding entirely on cave crickets and the rolled
oats with which my traps were baited. In winter they
may make still more use of the cave, for they were
abundant in the cliffs and buildings outside, apparently
being the most abundant mammal of the region. In
Jim White’s cabin they were rather troublesome until
my traps set in the corners and around the wall removed
seventeen of them, after which only an occasional mouse
was caught. Some were caught in the bunk house, and
in an upper bunk one had a beautiful nest, a hollow
ball of tow with a hole in one side. In my little cabin
they were not disturbed and did not disturb me. Sey-
eral were kept in cages with two kinds of wheels for
play and exercise, and these wheels were kept busy all
night and part of the day. When ready to leave, I
left the cages open and the chff mice went where they
pleased, scampering over my bed, across my face, and
examining my hair with dainty hands. For a part of

74 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

the night they returned to the cages and ran their
wheels, but in the morning had taken up new nest
quarters under the floor. They are such clean, bright-
eyed, pretty little animals that they make interesting
pets and would be very companionable, if not so shy
and nervous. In proper cages, with revolving wheels,
they are contented and happy and seem not to mind
temporary captivity.

This mouse is about the size of the cave mouse but
has a longer and more hairy tail, larger ears, and
brighter color.

GRASSHOPPER MICE

Onychomys leucogaster ruidosae and Onychomys torridus
(Fig. 24)

No grasshopper mice were collected near the cave,
but specimens of the larger ruidosae have been taken
on Penasco Creek, a little farther north, and the smaller
torridus is common in Pecos Valley near Carlsbad, while
the easily recognized jaws of both species were found in
considerable numbers under the owl nests in the mouth
of the great cavern. These big owls are extremely
industrious and efficient collectors of small mammals,
and while their specimens are not labeled for exact
localities, they were doubtless gathered within a radius
of a few miles of the cave, and furnish a good index to
the species of the vicinity.

These sturdy, short-tailed little mice, while true
rodents, are largely insectivorous and carnivorous in
tastes and habits, sleeping by day in burrows in the

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 75

ground and roaming at night in search of food,—grass-
hoppers, crickets, beetles, moths, scorpions, spiders, and
any other mice or small animals that they can catch,
kill, and eat. They possess many of the habits of real
hunters, including a call note, a shrill little whistle like
the miniature howl of a wolf, by which they keep in
touch with each other at night. In the arid regions
they take to some extent the place of the moles and
shrews of the humid regions in the destruction of
ground-dwelling insects and small animal life. In this
respect they may well be as useful as birds in helping to
maintain a wholesome balance of nature and in control-
ling the abundance of injurious forms of life. The owl
perhaps deserves no credit for swallowing these useful
little animals, and yet we can not be sure that in un-
checked abundance even they might develop habits
injurious rather than beneficial to our interests.

Grasshopper mice are thickset little fellows with
short, fat tails, medium large ears, and the keen ex-
pression of hunting animals. They are dark gray or
pinkish buff above and pure white below.

WHITE-THROATED WOOD RAT

Neotoma albigula (Fig. 26)

These rock-loving wood rats are abundant in the
caves and canyon walls and every rocky place where safe
cover can be found. None was found in the depth of
the Carlsbad Cavern whereit would be necessary for
them to climb out every night to get a supply of green
food, but they were living in the great western entrance

76 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

back to the brink of the shaft that dropped one hundred
feet into utter darkness. Every little nook and corner
of the walls about the main entrance showed their tracks
and trails, and many of the niches were filled with their
trash piles or ‘“‘houses”’ of sticks and bits of stones,
bones, cow-chips, and food refuse. Some of the cabins
and storehouses at the cave were occupied by them,
and a soft nest of chewed up and finely shredded gunny
sack was found in a section of stovepipe in a corner of
my cabin. One of the wood rats was caught in a
storehouse at the entrance to the ladder shaft leading
down into the cave, where they came for grain and
supplies and made nests in the stacks of guano sacks.
They had at times been quite numerous in this building,
as shown by accumulated pellets, but a little spotted
skunk also had access to the storeroom and kept them
away most of the time.

Their bones were the commonest of any rodent in the
owl pellets in the caves and under the owls’ nests along
the cliffs, and were also found in droppings of ring-
tails, coyotes, and bobcats. They have many enemies,
which probably accounts for their occupation of the
rocky fortresses of cliff and canyon wall, and for the
care with which they close their rocky doorways with
sticks and stones and thorny vegetation. They are so
highly edible as to be especially sought by birds of prey
and carnivorous beasts, and presumably were eaten by
primitive man. In their rocky strongholds, however,
they are less easily obtained by man and by many other
of their enemies than are the gray wood rats that de-
pend on stick houses in the open valley.

Upper: Fic. 26. Tor WHITE-THROATED Woop Rat (NEOTOMA
ALBIGULA)

Gentle animals, not closely related to our brown rats

Lower: Fic. 27. House oF THE Gray Woop Rat (NEoToMaA
MICROPUS CANESCENS)
Built largely of cactus and around the base of a Spanish bayonet
plant in the open desert.

Fics. 28 anp 29. THE BANNER-TAIL (DIPODOMYS SPECTABILIS
BAILEYI)

These largest of all the kangaroo rats build great mounds in which
to live and store their food, and some of these mounds may be seen
within a half mile of the cavern entrance. The animals are very
gentle and make interesting pets.

78

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 79

The white-throated wood rat is one of the smaller
species, with round tail, large ears, and soft pretty fur
of a buffy gray color over the upper parts, and all white
below.

GRAY WOOD RAT

Neotoma micropus canescens (Fig. 27)

These ashen gray wood rats are numerous all over
the valley country and even up over the open tops of
the ridges, living away from the rocks in houses of their
own construction under cactuses, yuccas, agaves, and
other thorny or spiked vegetation. Often a heap of
many bushels of cactus joints, thorny twigs, and
branches, mixed with sticks, stones, dried cow-chips,
bones, and other trash is seen in the midst of a cactus
or lechuguilla patch, around the base of a dagger-
leaved yucca, or in a bush of allthorn or spiny mesquite.
Numerous doorways enter the house from the sides and
edges, and inside is a roomy dwelling place for the wood
rats, where they may be safe and comfortable in their
thorny strongholds, safe from many, but not all, of
their enemies. The weasels and little striped skunks,
the big bull snakes and rattlesnakes, can enter therein,
and men can tear the houses to pieces with long sticks
and catch the occupants. Still the wood rats are safe
enough to become very numerous where there is plenty
of cactus and other thorny material, and on some of
the cactus-covered flats their houses will average two
or three to an acre, and locally even more. Comfort-
able nests in the rooms of the houses or in hollowed-out

80 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

spaces underneath, and an abundance of green food
from cactus pads and a great variety of green plants,
with many seeds, nutlets, and fruits, afford them com-
fortable and prosperous homes.

Trails leading from one house to another suggest a
sociable life, but the storing habit, strongly developed
in the species, puts a limit on their sociability. Rarely
more than one adult is found in a house, but the young
remain with their mother until well grown.

The mother wood rat, if alarmed or forced to leave
the house, takes her small young with her, carrying
the two to four little ones clinging for dear life with
hooked incisors to her nipples while she drags them
rapidly along the well worn trail to another house or
to safe cover. Many times this saves the lives of the
young, but not always, for foxes and other small
carnivores can follow the trails and sometimes capture
both young and old.

At the edge of one wood rat house I saw a shrike
pecking vigorously at something, and on scaring it away
found a half-grown wood rat, with broken skull, which
the bird had been in the act of killing. Owls and the
smaller carnivores get many, while hawks occasionally
capture them early in the evening.

The gray wood rat is about the size of the white-
throated, but with shorter tail and clear ashy gray
color above, and white below.

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 81

COTTON RAT
Sigmodon hispidus berlandieri (Fig. 24)

This rough, gray cotton rat, common along the
Pecos Valley in the alfalfa and grain fields, meadows,
and ditch banks, and even up in the Guadalupe Moun-
tains where bits of meadowland occur, was not found in
the vicinity of the Carlsbad Cavern, but its Jaws were
picked up in the entrance under nest sites of the great
horned owls. The cotton rats may have been brought
from the farms along Black River, four miles distant,
but may have been caught nearer by. The owls are
most industrious collectors of small mammals, and cover
the ground more thoroughly than we do.

Cotton rats, when numerous in cultivated ground,
often prove very destructive to crops, not only cotton,
but all grains, alfalfa, hay, and many other farm prod-
ucts. But for owls and such enemies they would be
a serious menace to agriculture.

The cotton rat is between rat and mouse size, with
coarse gray hair, medium long, tapering tail, and not
very large ears.

PECOS RIVER MUSKRAT
Fiber zibethicus ripensis

These little pale muskrats are found in many places
along the Pecos River and come nearest to the big
cavern in the permanent pools of Black River, about
four miles south. Here on the irrigated farmlands of
‘Uncle Bill Washington’ a few are found, but they

82 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

are not very numerous, and are trapped off to prevent
any serious damage to the ditch banks and crops. In
a country of irrigation ditches they often do serious
damage by burrowing through the banks and letting
the water escape, but usually their fur is of sufficient
value to insure their scarcity, if unlimited trapping is
permitted.

Muskrats are expert swimmers, with large hind feet
and fringed toes, a long, naked, sickle-shaped tail, and
soft brown fur that nearly conceals the small ears.
When full grown they weigh about two pounds.

MEXICAN BEAVER

Castor canadensis mexicanus

A few beavers are said to have been taken a few years
ago in Black River on the Washington ranch, four miles
south of the Carlsbad Cavern, but the foreman of the
ranch thinks that none is found there now. During
high water the Black River runs to the Pecos below
Carlsbad, but for most of the year it is dry except in
pools and sections where the water rises over rocky
dykes. On the Washington ranch there are large
permanent pools and ponds, fed by flowing springs, so
the beavers need only to swim up Black River from the
Pecos in high water to find a paradise of deep water,
high banks, abundance of food, and ideal homes.
Evidently the Pecos River is used as a highway of
travel by beavers, but the section below Carlsbad is
very strongly alkaline and not enjoyed by them.

The beaver is a swimming animal, with fully webbed

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 83

hind feet, a broad, flat, naked tail, and dense water-
proof fur. Large individuals weigh as much as fifty
pounds.

BANNER-TAIL
Dipodomys spectabilis baileyt (Figs. 28 and 29)

These large, long-tailed kangaroo rats with capacious
cheek-pockets are abundant over the Pecos Valley and
even on the high limestone ridges all around the Carls-
bad Cavern. ‘They keep to the sandy or gravelly soil
where they can burrow and build their large mounds,
and avoid the rocky ledges, cliffs, and caves. Over the
valley their mounds are scattered irregularly, but often
are so common that a dozen may be counted from one
spot. Generally they are two to four feet high, and
six to ten feet across, with several holes entering the
sides and connecting with galleries which wind through
the mound and deep into the earth below. The mound
is built over and around the burrows with thin-walled
partitions in such a way that a man or horse in walking
over it may break through into the chambers below.
They are carefully avoided by horses and riders as
dangerous pitfalls, for they have caused the cowboys
many a bad fall. Some of the mounds are built around
a creosote or mesquite bush, the branches and roots of
which give a good framework for strengthening the
earth walls and protecting the house, for it is a real
house, well built and perfectly planned for comfort and
protection. Soft nests and ample stores occupy the
underground chambers, which are all connected by

84 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

galleries and inclined stairways. There are many
rooms and feeding places where the chaff and refuse of
food lie scattered on the floor until the accumulation
becomes deep and troublesome, when it is carried out
and mixed with the earth to increase the size of the
mound. Most of the doorways and passages are
generally closed with earth when the occupants retire
for the day, a well planned protection against enemies
and thieves that would prey upon their stores of food.
Some of the doorways are usually left open, and the
burrows to which they lead are often occupied by
snakes, lizards, and other small animals, showing the
wisdom of closed doors around the nests and
storerooms.

To a great extent these kangaroo rats are solitary in
habits, as all hoarding mammals are inclined to be, but
in many of the mounds in April a male and female were
taken, and on April 20 a half-grown young was taken at
a mound near the cave. The breeding habits seem to
be rather irregular and variable, probably depending on
the weather and plant growth, which affects the food
supply.

The animals are strictly nocturnal, and rarely have
been seen alive by even the oldest settlers of thecountry,
but owls and foxes prey upon them to a considerable
extent, and they are easily caught in snap traps for
specimens, or alive in tin can traps for study. A few
were kept in my cabin while at the cave, but in separate
rooms, as they would fight and kill each other if kept
together. They were gentle and friendly with me, but
did not like to be held or handled, nor to be disturbed

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 85

in their warm nests during the daytime. Well after
dark they come out of the burrows, and on the soft
furry soles of the long hind feet go hopping noiselessly
about in search of food, or skimming over the ground
in flying leaps with surprising speed. The little front
feet are used mainly as hands for gathering food, filling
the capacious cheek pouches, and holding the small
seeds and delicate plants that they eat. They are
dainty feeders, rejecting all coarse parts, coatings, and
shells of seeds, and selecting only the tender, juicy tips
of growing plants, or the moisture-laden sprouts and
bulbs, which supply the water necessary for a healthy
desert life. ‘Their systems are so perfectly adjusted to
conserve moisture that a relatively small amount is
required to supply their needs, and this they get from
their food even in the most arid sections of our deserts
where no visible water is to be found. Their under-
ground and nocturnal habits also protect them from
the extremely dry air of the desert climate and give
them a comfortable and comparatively safe type of
life.

The kangaroo rats are neither kangaroos nor rats,
but a remarkable family of desert rodents, with external
cheek pockets, long hind legs and tails, large heads and
pretty buff and white markings. The white tip of the
tail is a character of this species.

86 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

MERRIAM KANGAROO RAT
Dipodomys merriami merriami (Figs. 830 and 31)

The little Merriam kangaroo rats are common over
the valley and on the high limestone ridges about the
Carlsbad Cave. They are probably as common as the
larger species, but less conspicuous, as they place their
burrows under bushes and cactuses,—spiny-leaved
plants,—where they are often hidden or unnoticed.
Many of the animals were caught, however, in traps
set at various burrows, and not infrequently at the
large burrows of the banner-tail which seems to have the
same range, and on the stores of which they apparently
depend for a share of their living. Both species were
captured and kept in captivity in my cabin while I
was at the cave. The big ones were always trying to
jump on and kill the little fellows, which were, however,
too quick and watchful to be caught. ‘They were gen-
tle, lovely pets, did not object to being handled, and
usually were not unfriendly to each other. Five adults
were often found sleeping in one nest box in my room,
but occasionally there were nocturnal squabbles among
them and some bloody tails next day. The one male
in the group finally took up his quarters in a cotton
roll on my desk and then the others were quiet and
friendly. Usually they did not store up food for the
daytime, but each filled its capacious cheek pouches
with rolled oats and grain before retiring to the nest
box for the day and so provided enough food to last
until the following evening.

These little, four-toed kangaroo rats are about half

Fics. 30 anp 31. Lirrte Four-rors (DIPODOMYS MERRIAMI
MERRIAMI)

The little four-toed kangaroo rats are common about the great
Carlsbad Cavern, the gentlest, prettiest, and most interesting of all
the small rodents of the region.

87

a %
~

Ree ae ae
ie ~ ot a

—
tat

’ ——
oar

~
ate

Fias. 32, 33, anp 34. THE Larce Pocket GorpHER (CRATOGEOMYS
CASTANOPS)

These big gophers live in the rich mellow soil of the Pecos Valley
where they do great damage to crops and fruit trees, living almost
their whole lives underground, feeding on roots or coming to the
surface to stuff their large cheek pockets with green food to be carried
into the burrow.

88

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 89

the size of the banner-tails and lack the white tip to
the long, slender tails. They are buffy brown, with
white markings and white lower parts.

POCKET MICE

Perognathus

Pocket mice of three species are known from the
Pecos Valley at Carlsbad, the large, coarse-haired
Kansas pocket mouse (Perognathus hispidus paradoxus) ;
the little, soft, yellow Dutcher pocket mouse (Perogna-
thus merriamt gilvus), originally described from Carls-
bad specimens; and the tiny, yellow Baird pocket
mouse (Perognathus flavus) of the Rio Grande Valley,
which also comes up the Pecos Valley and has been
collected at Carlsbad. None of these was taken in my
traps near the cave, but jaws and parts of their skulls
were found among the small bones under the owl nests
at the cave entrance. There are still other species of
the brush-tailed group of pocket mice that might occur
here, but none of their bones was recognized.

All of these little pocket-bearing animals are desert
dwellers, nocturnal burrowers of retiring, but very
interesting, habits. Most of those studied were gentle
and quite willing to be handled and stroked, even from
the moment of capture, and they make unusually
attractive pets. They are great storers of food and
consequently rather inclined to be solitary in habits,
and more or less greedy in robbing each other’s stores,
two of them often spending a whole night in stealing
food from each other and hiding it in different corners
of the cage.

90 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

The large Kansas pocket mouse measures in total
length about 222 millimeters; tail, 108 mm.; hind foot,
26 mm.

The little Dutcher pocket mouse measures in total
length about 118 mm.; tail, 58 mm., foot, 16 mm.

The tiny Baird pocket mouse measures in total length
about 112 mm.; tail, 50 mm., foot, 15 mm. All have
fur-lined cheek pockets like the kangaroo rats.

LECHUGUILLA POCKET GOPHER

Thomomys lachuguilla

These small brown pocket gophers are fairly common
all over the limestone ridges about the cave, and wher-
ever the little century plant, mescal, or lechuguilla
grows. They live almost entirely underground, even
where the soil is so shallow over the limestone that they
can not find enough mellow earth with which to close
their doorways to the surface. Generally, however,
their habitations are recognized by the numerous
small mounds of dark earth pushed out along the lines
of their tunnels, the earth covering and closing the
temporary exits through which it was pushed out in the
construction of the tunnels. The gophers live almost
entirely among the little lechuguilla plants, upon which
they largely depend for food, burrowing under and
eating their way up into the rich food stored in the
heart of the plant, and being protected from above by
the bristling dagger points and hooked sawteeth of
the rigid leaves. One of these large heads will supply
good food and moisture for a gopher for probably a

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 9]

week, and a dense patch of the plants may keep one
all summer with little extension of his burrows beyond
their protecting spikes.

The plants are killed, of course, when thus eaten out,
but fortunately the gophers are not sufficiently numer-
ous to make much impression upon the miles of dense
growth of this important food plant. The roots and
bulbs and underground parts of many other plants are
also eaten along the gopher burrows, but some returns
are made to the plant economy by a constant stirring
and pulverizing of the soil and by burying the surface
vegetation under the gopher hills to decompose and
return its richness to the earth.

This is a small gopher with the upper incisors un-
grooved, and with large, fur-lined cheek-pockets, very
small ears and eyes, and short, silky brown hair. The
front claws are long but relatively slender.

CHESTNUT POCKET GOPHER

Cratogeomys castanops (Figs. 32, 33, and 34)

The big pocket gophers, with large, fur-lined cheek
pouches are abundant on the mellow and fertile soils
of the best farming land throughout the Pecos Valley.
Even in the town of Carlsbad they are found in the best-
kept lawns, and on vacant lots, and along the sandy
border of the river. One that I caught in the dooryard
of Carl Livingston’s house in the heart of town had
been burrowing for a year or more, covering much of
the beautiful lawn with large unsightly mounds of clay.
I found a trap set in the mouth of a hole that had not

92 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

been opened half way down to the occupied tunnel, so
dug down and reset it in the tunnel, where it caught
the gopher in afew hours. None of these gophers was
found nearer than four or five miles from the great
cavern. Still I found many of their teeth and bones in
the great horned ow] pellets and on the earth beneath
the owl nests in the mouth of the cavern. Under a
nest near the Pecos River their bones were also numer-
ous. Apparently these owls are one of the greatest
enemies of the gopher, and therefore one of the best
friends of the farmer, for the gophers are exceedingly
destructive to farm crops and fruit trees. They eat
the grain and alfalfa, cover growing crops with their
large mounds, eat potatoes and most other garden
vegetables, and injure or kill the fruit trees by gnawing
the roots and bark from underground. Their eradica-
tion becomes necessary in cultivated grounds, but in
waste places they do little harm and some good in
stirring and enriching the soil.

These are the large valley gophers, about twice the
size of the little lechuguilla gopher, with single-grooved
upper incisors, and very heavy, front digging claws.
They are buffy brown in color.

JAGUAR

Felis hernandesi

These great, spotted cats, leopard-like in appearance,
but heavier and more powerful, live principally in
Mexico and the countries to the south. Occasionally
one comes over the border into Texas, New Mexico, or
Arizona, and wanders over the rough, unoccupied

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 93

country, killing cattle and game. ‘There are some old
and indefinite records of their occurrence in the Sacra-
mento Mountain region, and Carl B. Livingston told
me that about four years earlier (in 1920) a hunter
brought a fresh skin of one into Carlsbad and sold it
at one of the stores. He saw the skin but unfortunately
did not learn just where the animal was killed, although
probably it was at no great distance.

GRAY MOUNTAIN LION

Felis couguar aztecus

Mountain lions, also called panthers and cougars,
have been in past years numerous and very troublesome
to the stockmen of the Guadalupe Mountain region, but
now are scarce andrarelyfound. A few still roam over
the rough canyon country. One was killed in the
mouth of the Carlsbad Cave a few years ago, and last
winter another got into a coyote trap near the cave and
carried it away onitsfoot. In April, 1924, in a branch
of Walnut Canyon about four miles from the cave I
found a dead colt, freshly killed and about one-fourth-
eaten, evidently by a cougar. Traps, dogs, and poison
have so reduced these animals that they are almost
harmless. A few may be considered desirable as
affording some spice of large carnivore life to the
country. Just the thought that one might see a big,
long-tailed, yellow cat out in the hills is worth
something. j

The numerous caves have been not only strongholds
for these cats, but in some cases have doubtless served

94 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

as traps where large game could be cornered and cap-
tured. It would seem an easy matter for them to
catch mountain sheep in the cave in Slaughter Canyon,
but with a fair start from their rocky bed-ground the
sheep would have a good chance to escape through the
ereat cave door, out onto rough slopes where they
would be safe.

The gray mountain lion is merely a pale desert form,
less deeply tawny than that of the Rocky Mountain
region.

MOUNTAIN BOBCAT

Lynx rufus uinta

No bobcats were seen near the cavern, and they seem
to be scarce at the present time, although they have
been one of the commonest of fur bearers in past years
in all the canyons, cliffs, and caves of the region. The
foreman of Washington’s ranch, four miles south of the
cave, told me that they had killed seven during the
winter, hunting them with dogs. Traps and poison
have also helped to thin their numbers. Jim White
has seen them in the west opening of the big cave, where
they might find ideal homes among the rocks of the
entrance as well as in the dark tunnel below. I found
no trace of them inside the cavern and doubt if they
ever followed it for any considerable distance.

The bobcat is a short-tailed, long-whiskered, tassel-
eared cat, that sometimes reaches a weight of twenty-
five or thirty pounds. It is yellowish gray, much
spotted with black on sides, throat, legs, and belly.

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 95

ARIZONA GRAY FOX

Urocyon cinereoargenteus scottir

Gray foxes (frontispiece), once numerous in this cave
region, like all of the small carnivores are now scarce,
doubtless owing to widespread poisoning of the range.
One old carcass was all that we found near the Carlsbad
Cavern, but a few tracks were seen in Slaughter
Canyon. ‘These foxes are said to be more common in
the mountains, where the sweet berries of the checker-
barked juniper are abundant, and where the pine nuts
help to supply them with food.

Not being very swift of foot they depend largely upon
rocks and small caves for cover and refuge, and when
pressed by dogs will climb to the tops of trees and hide
among the branches. Their climbing habits may well
have been developed by their fondness for the berries
and sweet fruit of junipers and other trees.

The gray fox is smaller than the red fox and not so
swift. It has a flattened tail, with black tip, and rather
coarse gray fur with bright orange brown on throat,
sides, and legs. |

TEXAS COYOTE
Canis latrans texensts

Coyotes are not abundant in the cave region, but a
few follow the trails up the ridges and canyons from the
valley below where they hang around the stock ranches,
follow the herds of Angora goats, and catch jack rab-
bits for a part of their living. At the cavern they were
occasionally heard howling at night, with long yap, yap,

96 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

yaps, and a kiyi-t-1-1-1-1-1-1-1, in fast falsetto tones. A
few bones were found back in the cavern a hundred
feet beyond the great western doorway, where they may
have been carried, or where some coyote cornered in
the entrance and forced to jump into the cave had died a
lonesome death. Poisons and traps have thinned them
out in this part of the valley, but Carl Livingston told
me that they were more numerous east of Carlsbad,
where on one large cattle ranch they were known to have
killed about twenty calves in the spring of 1924.

The coyote is a small wolf, less than half the size of
the lobo, weighing about twenty-five or thirty pounds,
dark yellowish gray in color, and with rather large
ears.

GRAY WOLF

Canis mexicanus nubilus

These big gray wolves, or lobos, were once numerous
in the Pecos Valley, and were still very destructive to
stock when I was there in 1901. Now they are practi-
cally gone, and the stockmen could give me no recent
record of their occurrence in the Carlsbad region. A
few may wander in from time to time from across the
Rio Grande or other areas where they have not been
systematically trapped.

The large gray wolf or lobo of the Mexicans is a
heavy animal, often weighing over one hundred pounds,
with long, light gray fur, and a well marked cape or
mane of long hairs.

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 97

NEW MEXICO BRIDLED WEASEL

Mustela frenata neomexicana

The bridled weasels are such pretty animals that if
once seen they can not be mistaken for any other
weasels. Jim White told me that he had several times
seen them and had caught some in traps near the cave,
and on a fresh fall of snow about the middle of March
I saw the unmistakable track of a weasel in the great
pit at the west entrance to the cave. Never abundant
anywhere, these interesting animals are evidently not
uncommon here, and hunt the cave walls for mice and
other small game.

The bridled weasels may be known by the dark face
and white spot on the forehead, the long, slender, light
brown body, and black tip to the long tail.

LONG-TAILED TEXAS SKUNK

Mephitis mesomelas varians (Fig. 35)

The common skunk occurs more or less generally in
all the canyons and gulches of the cave region, and at
times is known to enter the cave openings. One
caught in a goat corral, where it had been digging for
beetle larvae in the goat manure, was coaxed into a tin
can, carried to camp, and given a dose of ether by
merely pouring a couple of ounces of the fluid into the
tin can. In about two minutes, while limp and help-
less so that it could be safely handled, the skunk was
placed on the ground out in the sunshine, and when it
had recovered from the anaesthetic, was photographed
several times before it was allowed to escape.

98 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

The long-tailed skunk has two broad white stripes
along the sides of the back, meeting over the neck and
shoulders and on the sides of the tail, and a narrow
white stripe down the face; the rest of the body is shiny
black; the odor is as strong and characteristic as the
color and pattern.

HOG-NOSED SKUNK

Conepatus mesoleucus mearnst (Fig. 36)

A fine old male of this big species, with long nose,
solid white back, and bushy white tail, was taken at an
old goat camp in Walnut Canyon, a mile and a half from
the cavern. It had been digging deep holes in the
old manure of the goat corral in search of big fat
‘“‘orub-worms,”’ larvae of a Lachnosterna beetle, which
were the only food found in its alimentary canal. The
large round beetle burrows leading straight down into
the manure were the size of my finger, and with the
help of his long bare nose the skunk could probably tell
before he began to dig whether a fat grub was to be
found at the bottom. Most of the burrows went down
about a foot, and I learned by digging that the beetle
larvae were common at this depth. The skunk taken
was only moderately fat, but weighed nine pounds, a
weight not equaled by any of the other skunks unless
excessively fat. It was coaxed into a joint of stove-
pipe, given a dose of ether, and photographed while
under the effects and after it had partly recovered; but
when fully recovered and closely pursued, it discharged
its powerfully repellent battery so vigorously that

Upper: Fic. 35. Texas SKUNK (MEPHITIS MESOMELAS VARIANS)

Reviving after a thorough anaesthetic but not yet vigorously
active.

Lower: Fic. 36. Hoc-Nos—ED SKUNK (CONEPATUS MESOLEUCUS
MEARNSI)
Given a dose of ether and photographed hurriedly as he became
active again.
99

Upper: Fic. 37. Lirrte Sporrep Skunk (SPILOGALE LEUCOPARIA)

Captured at the doorway of the Carlsbad Cavern

Lower: Fic. 38. THE Rinc-raitepD Cat (BASSARISCUS ASTUTUS
FLAVUS)
These beautiful, soft-furred cave-dwellers are skillful climbers
over cliffs and rocky walls where the large squirrel-like tails serve a
useful purpose.

100

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 101

further efforts at photography were abandoned. The
odor of these big skunks differs but little from that of
the common Mephitis, but the fluid appears to be more
copious and more powerfully ejected.

The hog-nosed skunk is the largest of the three
genera of skunks, with naked nose pad, very long dig-
ging claws, and a solid white back and tail.

LITTLE RIO GRANDE SPOTTED SKUNK
Spilogale leucoparia (Fig. 37)

These graceful, weasel-like, little skunks, with their
dazzling pattern of black and white spots, and stripes
and zigzag lines, their plumy tails and intelligent
faces, are the most attractive of the skunk tribe. They
are common in the caves and in crevices of the cliffs, or
under broken rocks wherever food and cover are to be
found. They are great climbers over cliffs and rocks,
as well as in bushes and trees, and seem to delight in
prowling through the dark recesses of caverns or follow-
ing the narrow shelves of cliffs and canyon walls, where
their little tracks are often found in the dust. At the
mouth of the great cave one was caught in a wood-rat
trap under a hollow ledge where the wood rats lived.
As it was not injured, it was kept alive during my
stay at the cave and occupied a cage in my sleeping
room for several weeks. It soon became fairly gentle
and would take food, very cautiously, from my hand.
On two occasions it escaped from the box at night and
went pattering around the floor, creating great excite-
ment among my other small animals, running loose in

GICATS,
Ve A 4
“I oO te

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Ar = “kh. G) Wy A

102 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

the room until I got up and shooed it back into its nest
box and fastened the door. On one of these occasions
it caught and killed two of my little kangaroo rats
before they discovered its presence, but the others kept
well out of reach around the room. In the cage it ate
the bodies of birds and small mammals that had been
skinned for specimens, as well as cooked meat, bread,
and fruit, but a large part of the natural food of this
species consists of insects, and mice and other small
rodents. Another spotted skunk, which lived in a
storehouse near the cave shaft, caught or drove out all
the wood rats and mice that had been living there.

By many of the western people these little animals
are called ‘“‘hydrophobia cats,” or for brevity “phoby-
cats,’ and their bite is believed invariably to convey
rabies. This is not the case, however, as their bite is
normally followed by no serious consequences, although,
if they were suffering from rabies, their bite would con-
vey the disease in the same way as that of a dog, cat, or
other infected animal.

The little spotted skunk is about half the size of the
common skunk, black, strikingly striped and spotted
with white, and with the long brush of the tail all white.
Its odor is but little different from that of its larger
relatives.

MEXICAN BADGER
Taxidea berlandiert

Badgers are fairly common in the valley country, but
rarely come up on the rocky ridges about the cave.
Their large burrows are especially common in prairie-

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 103

dog towns, where these fat little squirrels have been dug
out forfood. They also dig out many ground squirrels,
kangaroo rats, and mice, getting most of their living by
the aid of their long, powerful claws backed by heavy
digging muscles. With short legs they have little
chance to escape from their enemies, unless a burrow is
near enough for refuge, but once the burrow is gained
they defy all further pursuit. When escape is cut off,
however, they will stand their ground and fight savagely
with any opponent. Their thick hides and keen-cut-
ting teeth render them no mean antagonist for the
largest dog, and they usually get away with less injury
than any dog so rash as to attack them. Men and
boys, however, can rarely resist the temptation to shoot
so large and conspicuous an animal, even though prac-
tically harmless and one of the most useful of our
native animals. On very rare occasions one may get
into a hen-house and kill all the poultry it can find, but
this is easily preventable and should be given little
weight against the enormous destruction of prairie-
dogs and ground squirrels, the most injurious of rodent
pests, carried on industriously throughout the year by
the badgers. The old excuse for killing badgers, that
horses stepped in their burrows and broke their legs
and the necks of the riders, is no longer valid, as the
days of the cowboy are over. Fat cattle, barbed wire
fences, and automobiles have superseded them.

The badger is a low, wide, heavy-bodied animal about
the size of the raccoon, but with short legs, short tail,
and very long, powerful digging claws. It has coarse
gray fur, with black face markings, and a narrow white
line along the middle of face and back.

104 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

TEXAS GRIZZLY

Ursus texensis texensis

That grizzly bears once inhabited the Sacramento and
Guadalupe mountain ranges is well known, but as
early as 1900 they were extremely scarce, and now are
probably all gone. Not a specimen remains to show
what the species was, but on grounds of proximity they
may well have been the same as the one described by
Dr. C. Hart Merriam from the Davis Mountains,
Texas, killed in 1900 by C. O. Finley and John Z.
Means. Apparently the species is now extinct, but
any old skulls from the Guadalupe or Sacramento
mountains would be of great interest in showing which
of the several species of grizzly bears once inhabit-
ing New Mexico was represented in this range.

This is a small brown or gray form of the large-
toothed, long-clawed, grizzly group.

NEW MEXICO BLACK BEAR

Ursus americanus amblyceps

A few black bears still occur in the Guadalupe
Mountains, and occasionally they come down the
canyons almost to the great cave. Originally they
undoubtedly came beyond the cave, and may at times
have occupied the entrance tunnel, as they still some-
times do in the caves in Slaughter and other canyons.
The dense chaparral in the heads of canyons of the
Guadalupe Mountains affords excellent cover and an
abundance of acorns and berries for bears in a region
so steep and rough that hunting is difficult, and it is to

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 105

be hoped that some will remain here for many years to
come.

The black and brown bears of this region are readily
distinguished from the brown grizzlies by the short,
sharp, front claws, and the relatively small teeth.

MEXICAN RACCOON

Procyon lotor mexicanus

Raccoons find an abundance of food and congenial
range along the Pecos and Black rivers, but rarely come
up to the vicinity of the great cavern. Two were
killed last winter on Washington’s Ranch on Black
River just south of the cave, and tracks of others were
seen in the mud along the Pecos in April. They often
live in caves or holes in the cliffs, but rarely go any
great distance from open water.

The Mexican raccoon is very similar to the eastern
form, but generally clearer gray in color, with the same
black mask across the eyes, and five black rings around
the furry tail.

RING-TAILED CAVE CAT

Bassariscus astutus flavus (Fig. 38)

Of the few mammals that reach to the farthest ends of
the deepest and darkest halls of the great Carlsbad
Cavern and inhabit all the other numerous caves of the
region, the “‘ring-tail,’’ as locally called, is the most
spectacular and interesting. ‘This representative of the
raccoon family comes into the southwestern United
States from Mexico, and with several varieties or sub-

106 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

species extends from the Pecos River to the Pacific
Coast and northward to southern Oregon. It is about
the size of a small house cat, with a strikingly barred
or ringed tail, longer and larger than the rest of the
animal, and with a fox-like face and cat-like feet. It
is well known to prospectors and trappers of the region,
but its plain gray fur, while soft and fine, has little
value in commerce and is rarely seen in actual use. To
the prospector the animals are of special interest, as
they often visit his cabin and catch the surplus mice
and rats, and in some cases become so tame as to make
interesting pets. In the great cave their tracks and
bones were found in several of the largest rooms, the
most numerous and freshest tracks being found in the
farthest and deepest room of all, to which we descended
from the floor of the large south room by a hundred-
foot wire ladder. Later Carl Livingston reported one
seen alive in this room. An almost complete skeleton
was found in the south room, and other parts of skele-
tons were found near the entrance to this room and on
both sides of the Devil’s Den; much old excrement was
observed on the guano-covered shelves of the large bat
room back of the west entrance to the cave. Poison
and traps had recently destroyed most of the animals
outside, but one visited the west entrance to the cave
several times during my stay and left his cat-like
tracks on the dusty floor of the arched doorway and
along the narrow shelf that runs past the little drinking
pool and around the limestone wall to the various
niches where cliff mice and wood rats live. Some of
these cliff trails are little more than creases in the sheer

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 107

wall where claw holds might well require the balance of
a long and spreading tail; or long leaps from point to
point a squirrel-like rudder; for the flattened tail is
more squirrel-like than cat- or raccoon-like.

To obtain specimens I went to the smaller caves in
Walnut and Slaughter canyons, where the ring-tails
were more numerous, and in one of the caves, high up
on the side of the mountain and not easily reached,
they were so numerous that trails and fresh tracks led
into every nook and corner, and especially into the small
tunnels where no larger animal could follow, and where
there were evidently well protected breeding dens.

The animals are rarely seen except when caught in
traps. They follow the cliffs and canyon walls from
one cave to another, and undoubtedly make journeys
from one canyon to another, but in most places caves
are their real homes. ‘They are strictly nocturnal, and
their large eyes are well adapted to night use, but how
they find their way about and catch their prey in the
utter darkness of the deeper caves are unsolved
mysteries. :

They are hunters, but their food is varied to include
almost any small animal life, mammals, birds, insects,
centipedes, and fruit. The pellets of old dried excre-
ment from the inner shelves of the cave showed a mix-
ture of bones, fur, feathers, and insect shells, remains
of cave mice, wood rats, guano bats, cave crickets, and
other insects. In some cases the bones and fur showed
their food to have consisted entirely of guano bats, and
these must have been caught as they crowded out or in
the cave doorway during periods of great abundance.

108 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

Except for this destruction of bats, which would occur
only where large colonies gather, their food habits are
largely beneficial in controlling the abundance of
rodent and insect pests.

The ring-tail is most nearly related to the raccoon,
but is much smaller and slenderer, with a bright pretty
face and large ears, a long flattened, bushy tail with six
or seven black bars across the top, and buffy gray fur
over the body.

MEXICAN FREE-TAILED BAT

Tadarida mexicana mexicana (Figs. 39 and 40)

The bats of the Carlsbad Cave are not the so-called
cave bats of recent literature, but the free-tailed bats,
the famous guano-producing species of Mexico and the
southern United States, and more than any other group
of bats, cave dwellers. They differ from our northern
bats in the projecting tail, reaching about aninch beyond
the attached membrane, in the short, wide ears, short
fur, and in a strong odor peculiar to the group. Their
habit of roosting in extensive colonies in caves or build-
ings has given them great value in the production of
guano, much prized as a fertilizer. These are not the
only bats found in the cave, but they are present in such
numbers that other species are little noticed.

The number of bats in the cave varies at different
seasons, apparently reaching the maximum in August
and September, when they gather for their winter sleep.
They hang themselves up under the highest dome of
the cave ceiling, one hundred fifty feet above the cave

Uprrr Two: Fics. 39 anp 40. Guano Bar (TADARIDA MEXICANA
MEXICANA)

One alive and crawling backwards up a cloth curtain, the other
dead and spread on glass in form of flight.

Turrp: Fic. 41. Lirrue Canyon Bar (PIPISTRELLUS HESPERUS)

Lowest: Fic. 42. Tae Houss Bat (Myoris INCAUTUS)
109

Urrrer Two: Fics. 43 anp 44. JACK-RABBIT Bat (CORYNORHINUS
MACROTIS PALLESCENS)

One of the longest-eared bats of North America

Lowest: Fic. 45. Brg Brown Bat (EPTESICUS FUSCUS FUSCUS)

110

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 111

floor, where they can barely be seen by a powerful
searchlight, and are entirely out of reach of ladders,
so the estimates of numbers must be based on their
flights to and from the cave. On my arrival at the
cave, March 11, they were quiet, and most of them
apparently were still in the torpor of hibernation. A
few days later, on warm evenings, they began to come
out of the west entrance in considerable numbers and
disappeared in the darkness of the night. At first
about one thousand were estimated as leaving the cave
during the twilight hour, but later the numbers in-
creased until on May 5 about twelve thousand (partly
counted and partly estimated) came out in one hour,
from 7:10 to 8:10 p.m., mountain time. The following
morning they reéntered the cave before daylight, at
4:00 to 4:45 a.m., or up to twenty-five minutes before
sunrise. Hach morning they returned and entered the
cave apparently in considerably less numbers than
those leaving the night before. Undoubtedly many
scattered out at this season over the low country, where
insect life had become abundant, and where comfortable
shelter could be found near the source of food supply.
All evidence points to the fact that the Carlsbad
Cavern is mainly a wintering place for these bats, where
they pass the winter in a state of torpor.

In late summer and early fall the bats are said to
gather at the cave in enormous numbers. For several
hours in the evening they pour from the openings in
black streams so dense that they can be seen from a
distance of two miles, and fill the shafts so closely that
they can be caught in the hands as they pass out.

112 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

Their numbers must thus run into the hundreds of
thousands or into millions, and such numbers would be
necessary to account for the great deposits of guano
once found in the cave. It is well known that in the
fall these bats leave buildings and any quarters exposed
to low temperatures and return again in spring.

Hibernation, or the complete torpor in which the
temperature of the animals’ bodies becomes approxi-
mately that of the air, and all the life processes are
reduced to the lowest stage that will maintain life, is
probably continuous with the bats for about five
months, from October to March, but more or less
intermittent in fall and spring. On my arrival at the
cave, March 11, some of the bats came out on warm
evenings, and at least a part of them returned in the
morning, but a series of cold nights kept them in for
a week or more at atime. A few would be found flying
about in the cave during the evening, but only a com-
paratively small number, and these would not go out
into the cold outer air. The air at the bottom of the
room under the bats was usually 55 degrees Fahrenheit
during March and April, and is said to vary but little
throughout the year. Unfortunately, the hibernating
colonies of bats in the cave were so far out of reach
that a satisfactory study of temperatures and conditions
could not be made.

The bats captured and kept in captivity became
torpid at night when the temperature fell to 50 degrees
Fahrenheit, and showed about the same body tempera-
ture as the air. They were stiff and unconscious, able
only slowly to move a foot or wing when disturbed, or

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 113

when they began to warm up. At 60 degrees they
became active, and usually remained so during the day
in my room.
_ While the bats were hibernating, their stomachs and
the whole alimentary canals were empty, no guano
being deposited during the winter rest. However,
after a warm night in spring when the bats had come in
and hung themselves up for the day, there was constant
dropping from above of the little dry pellets of
excrement.

The guano deposits in the cave have been enormous;
they were one hundred or more feet in width, a quarter
of a mile in length, and varied up to a hundred feet in
depth. Back beyond all traces of light no live bats
were found, and there were no extensive deposits of
guano and only a thin layer of scattered droppings in
places where bat bones were found. Most of the guano
in the cave was removed during the twenty years be-
tween.1901 and 1921, and shipped away for fertilizer.
Jim White, who had charge of getting out the guano,
estimated that during about fifteen years approximately
half of each year was devoted to the work, generally
from September to March, and that from one to three
car loads of guano weighing about forty tons each were
shipped each day. A maximum of three car loads a
day was shipped at rush times only, but even one car
load a day for seven years would amount to consider-
ably over one hundred thousand tons of guano taken
out of the cave. From twenty to forty men were em-
ployed at a time, sacking, elevating, and hauling the
guano to the railroad, and night and day shifts were

114 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

worked in the cave. Two men working together could
fill and tie up four hundred sacks a day, the sacks
weighing 50 pounds each, and these were lifted to the
surface with engine and cable and loaded on heavy
wagons for the twenty-two-mile haul to Carlsbad.

The guano was shipped to the General Fertilizer
Company of California, but I could get only a general
statement of prices ranging from twenty to eighty
dollars aton. Of course the returns were not all profit,
but the cave was considered a valuable property until
the store of guano was practically exhausted. The
lower levels were very old, and not so rich in nitrates
nor so valuable as the more recent deposits.

At the present time there is little guano in the cave,
probably not a dozen car loads, and it is being deposited
so slowly that it can not have a real value again for
many years. A layer of about three inches in depth
has been added since the work stopped four years ago.
Under the central part of the bat roost, on April 29,
1924, I spread a paper twenty by thirty inches, and
in 44 hours caught 1,145 of the bat droppings, each
about the size of a grain of wheat and all together
weighing 5 grams when fresh, and 3.7 grams when dry.
The paper was about half-covered, so that a single
layer about two millimeters, or a twelfth of an inch,
- deep would at this season require about 88 hours or
nearly four days for deposit.

But insect life was scarce at this season, and bats
taken as they entered the cave in the morning had
their stomachs not more than half-filled, while those
leaving at night showed empty stomachs and often the

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 115

whole alimentary canal empty. This would indicate
unusual scarcity of food and a correspondingly light
deposit of guano. Bats are normally hearty feeders,
and some are known to eat a quarter of their own weight
of insects at a meal, and probably half their weight
or more during a night. They also drink heartily when
they first start out in the evening, flying to some pool
or open water and dipping repeatedly to the surface,
scooping up mouthfuls of water while skimming close
to the surface on widespread wings.

Food is probably the determining factor in the abun-
dance and distribution of these bats, as they are said to
be more numerous some years than others, most so in
rainy years when insect life is abundant. Evidently
they move to find a satisfactory food supply, or leave
an area deficient in insect life.

The details of their food habits are not well known,
as their teeth, with intricate cutting crowns, cut the
insects into minute particles. All of our United States
bats are known to feed entirely on insects, mainly
caught on the wing, but the kinds of insects in the
stomachs or composing the little dry droppings are
necessarily determined with great difficulty. Samples
of the guano from the cave proved under the micro-
scope to consist largely of remains of numerous species
of beetles and moths with occasionally recognizable bits
of wings, legs, or other remains of flies and other insects.
Bats shot while feeding at dusk sometimes have recog-
nizable insects in their mouths, but the relative pro-
portions of species eaten have never been determined.
Small, soft insects, such as mosquitoes, are rarely, if
ever, recognizable.

116 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

Where the bats were feeding could not be learned, as
they did not remain about the cave at night, and could
not be found along Black River, nor at any of the
springs in the canyons. They probably went to the
Pecos River or Carlsbad, where insect life was more
abundant. ‘Those taken on my arrival at the cave were
still well supplied with a layer of the winter fat under
the skin, but later this had mostly disappeared, showing
that food had been scarce since they awoke from the
winter’s sleep.

The free-tailed bats are more gregarious than any
other species, and perhaps for this reason they occupy
only certain caves. None was found in any of the
nine other caves of the region entered. However,
they undoubtedly occur in some of those that we
did not enter where considerable guano has been
taken out in past years.

On the wing these bats are strong, rapid flyers, and
will even breast a stiff wind in returning to the cave in
the morning, rising and falling to take advantage of
the air currents, and often coming down into the cave
from high in the air with whistling, shrieking wings as
they drop, zigzaging through the air, checking their
speed at every turn. In coming out of the cave the
rumble of their wings sounds like the muffled roar of
a rapid river, interspersed with sharp clicking sounds
made by overlapping wing-tips striking together as
they crowd through the great doorway and swarm up
into the evening air. They are wonderfully skillful at
dodging and avoiding objects, and their flight is so
swift and crooked that few specimens were obtained

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 117

with the shotgun. With nets on long poles it was an
easy matter to sweep them in from the air as they
crowded out of the cave doorway in the evening, and
we thus obtained all that were needed for examination
and study.

Jt was interesting to note their methods of progress
in captivity. They would climb rapidly up a cloth or
wire mesh, reaching up with long hooked arms, and
drawing up the body first on one side and then on the
other, and then turning around would hang themselves
up by the hooked claws of the hind feet to rest or sleep.
On the ground or rocks they would run rapidly on all
fours, crawling into dark corners to hide, or launching
off on spread wings from the edge of a rock or even from
the ground.

These bats have few enemies, and the fact that they
preduce but one young a year would indicate either
long life or unusual immunity from accidents. Where
massed together as they are in this cave, however, they
are captured and eaten to some extent by the big cave-
dwelling owls, the ring-tails, and quite probably by
other predatory animals, such as foxes, coyotes, and
bobcats. Jim White told me that one year when his
old cat had kittens she would go to the cave shaft in the
evening and catch the bats as they came near the edge
or fell to the ground and carry them to her kittens to
be eaten. When the bats were most numerous, he has
seen her with two in her mouth and a foot on each of
two others looking around to see what to do next.

Bat bones are abundant in places back in the farthest
recesses of the cave, generally, with a little old guano

118 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

scattered about. Most of these bones are in half-
hidden corners or little niches in the wall, as if the bats
had become unable to rise from the floor from weakness,
and had crawled into some corner to die. Many of the
skulls show the worn-out teeth of old age, or young bats
just able to fly, but others in the prime of life may have
become poor and weak from lack of proper food and
adverse weather conditions, and so were unable to make
the steep aerial climb out of the shafts of the cave. In
other caves the same conditions have been noted, Jarge
numbers of dead bats being gathered in certain places
in the far corners of the cave bottom, where they have
been reduced to skeletons and may have been preserved
for along time. A few mummies of bats with matted
fur still clinging to crumbling skin were also found with
the bare bones or scattered here and there over the
cave floors.

If the natural life of a bat were ten years, from a
colony of a million there would be about a hundred
thousand die of old age each year, so it is not strange
that thousands of skeletons are to be found in places
where there is nothing to destroy the animals.

The free-tailed, like most other species of bats, has
but one young a year, born in May or June. Mating
probably takes place in July or August, but the repro-
ductive process is retarded during the period of hiber-
nation. The first bats taken at the cave in March
were all males, but females first taken as they came out
on April 24 contained embryos seven millimeters in
diameter, or about the size of a number 6 buckshot.
On May 9, the egg-like embryonic sack was 11 mm. in

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 119

diameter; on May 22, 15 mm. in diameter; and on
June 13, 22 by 17 mm. in long and short diameters. At
the last mentioned time the young was practically
ready for birth and weighed 3.6 grams, while the mother
weighed 13.6 grams, or approximately four times as
much as the foetus. The birth of these young, fully a
quarter as heavy as the mother, would not be possible
but for the open, low, and widely separated pelvic bones
of the female bat. Even then it is scarcely conceivable
that she could give birth to so large a young one, com-
parable to a 35-pound child of a human parent.

After birth the young bats cling to the mother and
are carried about even while she is on the wing in pur-
suit of her insect food. Her two nipples are conven-
iently placed on the sides of her breast well around un-
der the wings, and as the mother hangs head downward
during the day, the young are cradled in the armpits
just below the nipples. Whether the young are carried
until old enough to fly and catch their own food is not
well known, but they develop rapidly and begin to fly
before they are full-grown. But much remains to be
learned of the breeding habits of all bats.

The general attitude that bats are “‘horrid,”’ “‘vile,”’
“venomous,” “emblems of the infernal regions,” and
that ‘“‘they get into your hair” is mere folk lore, based
on ignorance and passed on from generation to genera-
tion. To most people a bat is a bat, and they have no
realization that there are numerous families and genera
and species, differing as widely as do the species in any
other order of mammals, and perhaps more widely, and
that they belong to one of the most highly specialized

120 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

groups of mammals on earth, and perhaps are among
the oldest. In North America there are approximately
eight families, seventy-three genera, and two hundred
and fifty species of bats. 'The number of individuals is
enormous, corresponding well with the numbers of
birds, and these are scattered over the continent partly
in accordance with the insect population, or with certain
groups of insects, on which they largely subsist.
Naturally the number of species and individuals is
yreater in the south than in the north.

All of our North American bats, north of the tropics,
are entirely insectivorous, feeding on nocturnal insects
and to an important degree controlling their abundance,
just as many birds do the diurnal insects. It is con-
ceivable that without bats many kinds of vegetation
would be wholly devoured by insect pests, just as with-
out the birds our crops and forests would suffer. It
seems not unreasonable to credit bats with an economic
value to man approximately equal to that of the birds.

The guano bats belong to a southern group, with
tails extending about an inch beyond the membrane,
with short, wide ears, close, oily fur of a sooty color,
and with a strong odor that is unmistakable. They
are of medium size, spreading about twelve inches
across the wings.

JACK-RABBIT BAT

Corynorhinus macrotis pallescens (Figs. 43 and 44)

These long-eared bats were found in the McKittrick
Cave, twenty miles west of Carlsbad, on April 15, still
hibernating, hanging cold and torpid to the roof of the

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 11

cave, with ears curled around their heads like the horns
of old rams. A number were captured and taken to
camp and kept for many days in my room. They
would become active during the warm part of the day,
but cold and torpid again at night, and roll up their
ears in spirals on the sides of their heads. Specimens
were saved and photographs taken. The cave is low
and comparatively dry and warm.

These large bats may be known by the long, pointed
ears, light brown fur, and wide wings, spreading about
twelve inches.

BIG PALE BAT

Antrozous pallidus

These big pale bats were not found alive at or near
the Carlsbad Cavern, but several of their wing bones,
including three humerus bones easily recognizable, were
found in the farthest, deepest room of the cave. They
were old and bleached, and had been there many years.
The bodies of several dozen were found in a water tank
in Slaughter Canyon, where in drinking from the surface
of the water they had struck the galvanized iron walls,
and had fallen in and were drowned. The tank was
some forty feet wide and six feet high, and less than
half full of water. These were the only bats found in
the water although Eptesicus fuscus and other smaller
bats came to drink from the tank in great numbers.

Big pale bats are still larger than the jack-rabbit bats,
with ears almost as long, but broadly rounded at the
tips. Their fur is light buffy gray.

122 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

BIG BROWN BAT
Eptesicus fuscus (Fig. 45)

These large brown bats, weighing twelve grams, were
the commonest and the only kind shot in Slaughter
Canyon as they came to the water tank in the evening
to drink. Others seen flying at the spring and at the
entrance of the cavern may have been the same, but
none was taken near there. A couple of old skulls
picked up on the floor of the far south end of the lowest
room of the cavern prove to be of this species, and
strongly suggest an opening at that end where they
could have entered without going the whole length of
the dark corridors.

These medium large, dark brown bats can often be
recognized on the wing by their size, color, and strong
rapid flight. The spread is about thirteen inches
across extended wings.

SILVER BAT

Lasionycterts noctivagans

One of these black, woolly bats, with frosted back,
was shot at the spring the evening of April 12, by Dana
Lee, and two others were seen flying along the wall of
Walnut Canyon a few days later in the early evening.
The one collected measured 275 millimeters across the
wings, and weighed eight grams. They are northern
bats, breeding in the higher mountains of the northern
states and Canada, and migrating to lower or warmer
areas to spend the winter, but whether they winter in
caves or go south to a warm climate is not known.

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 123

The rather small size, eleven-inch spread of wings,
and black fur and membranes, often give ample recogni-
tion characters while the bats are on the wing, but the
silvery frosting on the black back is the most striking
character of the species.

RED BAT
Nycterts borealis

Two skulls of the little red bat were found on the
floor of the deepest room in the cave. ‘They were very
old and fragile, and had been there many years. ‘The
teeth were all gone, but the cranium was complete in
each. So little is known of the winter resorts of these
bats that every cave record is important. In summer
they are tree bats, spending their days hanging among
tufts of green leaves in the branches, and this record is
probably of a hibernating colony.

Red bats are of medium size, with very short ears and
golden brown fur.

HOARY BAT
Nycteris cinerea

A very large gray bat found hanging in a bush in the
gulch below the cave by Jim White in the fall of 1923
must have been of this species. He said it was squeak-
ing and screeching in a very savage tone when he found
it, but as he did not disturb it, I suspect there were
two of them. This is of course a migration record but
I could get no definite date for it. These are northern
bats that migrate at least to the southernmost parts of
the United States, but there seem to be no records of

124 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

their entering caves. They may not regularly hiber-
nate. In summer they are tree bats, spending the
daylight hours hanging head down in the dense foliage
of treetops.

The hoary bat is the largest species known here,
with a spread of wings of about sixteen inches. The
ears are very short and wide, and the long soft gray fur
is grizzled with buffy or whitish tips.

HOUSE BAT
Myotis incautus (Fig. 42)

These little pale brown bats are fairly common here.
At the Santa Fe water tower, four miles southwest of
Carlsbad, on the evening of July 29, 1901, I shot four
of them as they came to the water pool to drink at dusk,
flying in a straight line from the low limestone ridges to
the northwest, and moving so evenly as to be easily
shot on the wing. Usually in their zigzag flight after
insects bats are very difficult to shoot, and a dozen or
more shots would be necessary to procure four speci-
mens. I remarked at the time that the bats must have
come from a roosting cave, as they came in the same
line and were too thirsty to stop to catch insects.
Twenty-three years later, on May 2, 1924, Bob Dow
and Carl Livingston went with me to a cave in the top
of one of these limestone ridges about a half-mile north-
west of the same water tank, where hanging to the low
roof of the cave were about one thousand of these bats.
The weather was warm, the cave warm and dry, and
the bats were fully active, and easily alarmed by our
flashlights. They hung in a mass several yards in

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 125

extent, closely huddled together, but not pendent from
one another. As we approached closely with the lights,
they began to fly, the outer row leaving first, and others
as fast as exposed. I grabbed a handful of the bats
from the bunch and then retired leaving most of them
where they were. A few days later we brought a
motion-picture camera and tried to photograph them
as they hung in the mass and as they left it and flew
away, but the lights were inadequate and no pictures
were obtained. They were five or ten minutes in
leaving the bunch, but settled all over the roof of the
next room, and then, when disturbed, flew through a
low passage into a third room, to the far ends of low
tunnels, and into cracks and nooks and corners, where
they attempted to hide from the lights aswe approached.
In a narrow tunnel, where my body almost filled the
passage, they would try to pass me, but turned back
so quickly that I could rarely catch oneinmy hand. A
few left the cave through the narrow shaft at the top,
but most of the colony hid away in the numerous eet
ies and dark corners.

Only one other bat of this species was found, this on
April 13, hanging from the roof of McKittrick Cave,
twenty anil west of Carlsbad. It was active and full
of fight, while several Corynorhinus hanging near it were
cold and torpid. A very old skull was found in the
farthest, deepest room of the Carlsbad Cave, showing
that they had once occupied this room.

All but one of those taken in the cave were females,
as were also all of those shot at the water tank in 1901;
but four others caught at the Ball’s Ranch near the

126 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

Pecos River on September 17, 1901, were all males.
The caves are evidently their breeding grounds, al-
though Doctor Allen first recorded them from specimens
taken in a house in Texas, and so gave them the name
of house bat.

The house bat is a small pale brown species, with
narrow ears, and a spread of wings of about eleven
inches. It weighs six or seven grams.

FRINGED BAT

Myotis thysanodes

This rather large brown bat, with large, thin ears,
weighs about eight grams. One was found dead in the
rain barrel close to the ladder entrance to the big cave,
and as the species is a regular inhabitant of caves, it
had probably come out of the open shaft and in trying
to get a drink from the barrel had fallen into the water
and was drowned.

The fringed bat has a spread of wings of about 11}
inches. It is best marked by the hairy edge of the
tail membrane.

CAVE BAT
Myotis velrfer

An imperfect skull of this species was found in the
deep, far room of the cave, but like the skulls of other
species from there was very old and fragile and incom-
plete. No signs of recent occupation of this room by
bats were found, and it seems probable that some old
entrance from the surface has been closed within recent
years. In fact, a large sink hole over the top of this

Uprrr: Fic. 46. ENTRANCE OF Bat Cave In Dow’s PastTurRE, FouR
Mites WEstT or CARLSBAD

About one thousand house bats (Myotis incautus) were occupying
this cave.

Lower: Fic. 47. SLAUGHTER Cave IN SLAUGHTER CANYON
Three dead ring-tails were lying in the entrance, victims of poison
distributed by goat herders. Also much bat guano had been taken
from this cave.
127

Upper: Fic. 48. Entrance oF McKittrick CAVE, ABOUT FIFTEEN
Mites West oF CARLSBAD

The long-eared jack-rabbit bats were found hibernating in this
cave
Lower: Fic. 49. ENTRANCE OF SEvoYA Cave, NINETEEN MILES
NortH OF San ANTONIO, TEXAS
Great numbers of guano bats spend the year in this cave and
produce an annual crop of about 60 tons of guano.
128

MAMMALS OF THE REGION 129

room shows where the earth and rock have caved in
and evidently filled an original opening.

The cave bat is a medium-large, dull brown bat, with
short, pointed ears.

CALIFORNIA BAT
Myotis californicus pallidus

One old skull of this little bat from the deepest room
in the cave was found among other bat bones of about
the same age.

The little pale California bat is one of the very small
species. It has a spread of wings of about nine inches,
and is of a pale brown color, with dark brown
membranes.

CANYON BAT
Pipistrellus hesperus hesperus (Fig. 41)

These pale buffy bats, with strikingly black wings
and ears, are the midgets of our northern bats, adults
weighing four to five grams, and their wings spreading
only about eight or nine inches. They are the most
abundant bats in the canyons, where they swarm around
the springs and waterholes early in the evening, but
are so quick and crooked in flight as to be very difficult
to shoot. A considerable number were collected, but
at a large waste of ammunition. They seemed to
appear suddenly from cracks in the canyon walls, but
no special caves or gathering places could be found.
Some small bats, probably these, were seen flying about
in the mouth of the big cave, but no trace of them
could be found inside.

CHAPTER 6

BIRDS OF THE REGION!

In the immediate vicinity of the cave entrance, there
is no surface water except for a brief time after a rain
in rock pools. Even our drinking water was packed on
a burro over the limestone ridge from a spring in another
canyon a mile away. But to reach the cave from the
railroad one must come in from the Pecos River some
twenty miles to the east, or across the Black River two
or three miles to the south, where permanent water
attracts many forms of swimming and wading birds,
and the mild climate keeps some of them there through
much of the winter season. During spring and fall
migrations the Pecos River teems with wild geese, swans,
ducks, coots, grebes, cranes, herons, and a great variety
and abundance of wading birds,—curlews, avocets,
black-necked stilts, willets, yellowlegs, snipe, sand-
pipers, plovers, and phalaropes. An occasional cormo-
rant or anhinga comes up the river from farther south.

Of the migratory land birds great flocks of black-

1 This brief list of the birds of the Carlsbad Cave region, far from
complete, merely mentions some of the more interesting of those
observed during a stay at the cave from March 11 to May 10, 1924,
and on several previous visits by Mrs. Bailey and myself to Carlsbad
and the Guadalupe Mountains. Notes on the wintering of water
birds have been contributed by Carl Livingston, of Carlsbad, who has
spent many years in the valley, but no attempt has been made to use
all the information at hand. The notes are for the purpose of show-
ing the unusually interesting nature of the bird fauna of the National
Monument under which the cave region is being preserved for study.

130

Fic. 50. ScaLEp QuaIL, BLUE QUAIL, oR CoTToON-TOP

A common bird about the entrance of the cave when we were there
in the spring of 1924. Drawing by L. A. Fuertes. From Handbook
of Birds of Western United States, Permission Houghton Mifflin Co.

131

Fic. 51. Cacrus WrREN. THE SUN SINGER

Many of these large wrens nest in the cactus bushes around the
cave. Drawing by L. A. Fuertes. Courtesy of Biological Survey,
U.S. Department of Agriculture.

132

BIRDS OF THE REGION 133

birds,—yellow-headed, rusty, Brewer’s, red-wings, and
cowbirds,—swarm into the valley in fall and spring,
as do also the white-winged buntings, longspurs, juncos,
many other sparrows, horned larks, meadowlarks, and
some warblers and vireos.

The birds of greatest interest, however, are the
native breeding or resident species, many of which are of
peculiar desert forms able to live at considerable dis-
tances from water, or are entirely without a visible
source of water supply even during the nesting season.
Others remain always within easy reach of water and
serve as useful guides to the location of springs or
waterholes. A few are valuable game birds, while
some are important scavengers. Some of the predatory
birds are exceedingly useful, and others are more or less
harmful from man’s point of view. Some of the
seed-eating birds occasionally injure crops to a slight
extent, but they also protect the crops by destroying
myriads of weed seeds, while the insectivorous birds
are as indispensable a part of the desert economy as
they: are in more fertile sections of the country.

The scaled quail, blue quail or cotton-top (Fig. 50),
while generally distributed over the valleys, in canyons,
and on the open hill country, is found usually within
easy reach of some drinking place. They are almost
as fleet on foot as the rabbits with which they range,
and do not mind running a mile or two for a drink of
water. Large flocks visited the cave buildings daily
for the scattered grain we kept out for them and the
sparrows, and also visited the spring in the next canyon
a mile away and a rock tank a couple of miles below

134 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

the cave inourowncanyon. They are very responsive
birds when not so frequently alarmed as to be afraid of
man. Often twenty or thirty were seen running about
among the buildings, and sometimes were at our very
doors when we got up in the morning. Some would
perch on the rock piles, or even the house tops, and
sound their cheerful call notes to others scurrying
over the sidehills. With adequate protection and the
encouragement afforded by a few sacks of grain, these
birds could be kept as one of the delightful features of
the cave region.

The Mearns quail, or as locally known, the ‘‘fool
quail,’’ has one of its remaining strongholds in the
Guadalupe Mountains, and occasionally a few of the
birds come down on the juniper ridges to the vicinity
of the cave entrance. These plump little partridges,
with short wings and strong feet, and striking color
pattern, have a very limited range near the Mexican
border, and from their gentle and confiding natures
seem in actual danger of extermination. This is per-
haps the best remaining place to study their habits.
It is now well known that their unusually large and
strong feet and claws are used in tearing up small
bulbs, onions, and rootlets from the ground for food in
summer, but how they live in winter, how they get
along without water, and to what extent their naturally
gentle natures could be cultivated are factors wholly
unknown. Their flesh is darker and more delicious
than that of most of our other quail, and their domesti-
cation, if accomplished, might prove of much practical
value.

BIRDS OF THE REGION 135

The Merriam turkey, once abundant throughout the
Guadalupe Mountains and down nearly or quite to
the cave level, has been killed in recent years until
hunters now find it necessary to go north of Queen
before any of these magnificent birds are encountered.
Considerable numbers are still found, however, in the
Sacramento and White mountains, and better protec-
tion might easily restore them to their former range on
the rough ridges west of the Carlsbad Cave, where an
abundance of food and dense cover afford ideal condi-
tions for them.

Band-tailed pigeons are said still to breed in the
Guadalupe Mountains, where twenty-four years ago
Mrs. Bailey and I found them nesting in the extreme
head of McKittrick Canyon. Their large size, owl-
like hooting, and the loud flapping of their broad wings,
render them conspicuous in any forest, and here at the
extreme southeastern corner of their range their
presence has a special interest. At one time rigidly
protected for fear of their suffering the fate of the
passenger pigeon, they have in recent years shown a
marked increase in the far west and if given a chance
will undoubtedly hold their own. Nevertheless, the
places where they can be studied are all too few.

The common mourning doves are generally distributed
over the Pecos Valley in summer, and a few appeared
at the Carlsbad Cave during the latter part of March.
They did not become numerous during my stay up to
early May, but were evidently in breeding numbers.
The pelvis bones of one, heavily encrusted with lime,
were found in the cave near the Devil’s Den, back half

136 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

a mile from the entrance. They may have been
carried by an owl or ring-tail, or may have been washed
in from the entrance of the cave.

Turkey buzzards at times seem more abundant than
an arid region ought to require for scavengers, but the
cliffs and canyon walls afford such irresistible nesting
sites that they gather here in unusual numbers to breed.
None was seen before March 24, but during the first
half of April they became fairly numerous, often in
gatherings of one hundred or more. They would fly
over the canyons, or on cold windy evenings would
settle on the rocks or ground or in low trees in some spot
sheltered from the wind and where they would catch
the first warm rays of the morning sun. They would
not leave the roosting spot until well warmed, and at
eight or nine o’clock might be seen sitting with wide-
spread wings catching all the rays of warmth they
could reach. Sometimes two or three hundred were
seen together on the roosting grounds. White downy
young were found in the nest before the first of May,
while others were not yet breeding. A dry winter and
scanty forage for stock insured them a food supply from
dead cattle and burros in the canyons, and once I
found about a dozen feasting on a dead colt, killed and
partly eaten by a mountain lion. Unlovely birds as
they are, their usefulness as scavengers is generally
acknowledged, and their graceful soaring has long been
the admiration and envy of would-be human aviators.

Of the diurnal birds of prey there are golden eagles
and many hawks,—western red-tails, Swainson, fer-
ruginous rough-legged, a few marsh hawks, occasionally

Upper: Fic. 52. Nest oF THE Cactus WREN IN Cactus BUSH

The thick-walled nest of securely woven plant fibers lined with
feathers and opening through a neck at one side furnishes a warm
sleeping room for winter as well as a safe nest for the young
in summer.

Lower: Fic. 53. Toe Cane Cactus (OPUNTIA ARBORESCENS) IN
FRUIT
With nest of curved-billed thrasher safely hidden in the center of
its spiny branches.

137

Fic. 54. Canyon Wren. A TruE Cave DWELLER

Nests of these wonderful singers were found in or near the en-
trances of many of the caves of the region. Drawing by L. A. Fuertes.
From Handbook of Birds of Western United States. Permission of
Houghton Mifflin Co.

138

BIRDS OF THE REGION 139

a, zone-tailed hawk, many sparrow hawks, and a few
prairie falcons. There would be more golden eagles,
as shown by many old and unoccupied nests, but for
the goat industry and the fondness of these powerful
birds for young kids. It is perhaps well for the young
of some of the game animals, especially antelopes,
deer, and mountain sheep, that the eagles are not more
numerous. Nevertheless, it is almost a daily occur-
rence to see one or more of these great birds soaring
high above, scouring the cliffs for game, or making a
long dive into the valley for a jack rabbit. The
western red-tails are perhaps the commonest breeding
hawks along the cliffs and canyon walls, where bulky
stick nests are often seen. Sparrow hawks also breed
along the cliffs, and occasionally a prairie falcon. A
ferruginous rough-legged hawk came into the entrance
of the cave on windy days in April and sat in an
old nest under the great archway, perhaps its own nest
of previous years, but the many visitors kept it away
except when it was driven to shelter by raging storms.
Many carcasses of these big, beautiful, and useful hawks
were strewn along the roadsides in the valley, having
been shot from passing automobiles as the birds sat on
fence posts or telephone poles watching for ground
squirrels, their favorite food. Few hawks are of
greater value to farmers in the plains and prairie
country where ground squirrels are a serious pest, and
few do less harm to birds, game, orpoultry. OneSwain-
son hawk, another harmless species and very useful as
a grasshopper and rodent destroyer, was seen dead by
the roadside, the only one noted where there should

140 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

have been many. Will people ever get over the
kill-for-fun habit, or must they be wholly disarmed?

The owls of the country are few in number, but all
useful in habits. A few great horned owls, barn ouls,
screech owls, and the funny little burrowing owls are
found in the valley and cave country, and the spotted
owls up in the Guadalupe Mountains. Of these the
little round headed burrowing owl or prairie-dog owl is
the most frequently seen, because he sits on a mound by
a prairie-dog or badger hole in the daytime, and bows
and bobs to passers-by, or flies away to another burrow,
where perhaps he has a mate and nest of eggs or young
deep underground in a hole deserted by its original
owner. If so, tails and feet of kangaroo rats, bones of
mice, and legs and shells of a great variety of insects,
will be seen scattered about on the ground from the
disgorged and disintegrated pellets. Rarely a bird
feather is found, for these little owls live almost ex-
clusively on insects and small rodents. They often
live at long distances from water, and probably ean get
along without other moisture than what is obtained
from their food.

Great horned owls live in the Carlsbad Cave, under
the huge arch that spans the doorway, where for untold
generations their nests have occupied the high niches
in the rocky walls, and owlets have been safe from
storms and most of their enemies. Even the savage
red men who once occupied the cave with them were
loath to point an arrow at the sacred birds of the night,
but in recent years civilized visitors, to whom nothing
is sacred, have shot some and driven others away to nest

BIRDS OF THE REGION 14]

in less frequented caves and cliffs. However, the owls
pay nightly visits to the cave, as shown by plumy
feathers clinging to bushes at the entrance, and by the
deep toned hoo, hoo, hoo, ooo, breaking from the quiet
darkness of the great doorway. In the first big room of
the cave, owl pellets were found on the rocky shelves;
and far back at the brink of the Devil’s Den, beyond
the last ray of outside light, a complete skeleton of an
owl was picked up on the cave floor, perhaps a tragedy
of utter darkness, for, wonderful as the eyes of an
owl are, no eye can be conceived that could render
vision where no light exists.

Outside of the cave and a little way down the canyon
a pair of these owls had a nest in a shady niche, high
up on the face of the cliff. Here on April 10, a mother
owl was covering her two white downy young in plain
view from the trail, but so protected by her mottled
dress that when her big yellow eyes were shut she might
well have passed for a part of the cliff. I took her
picture, first from across the canyon. Then inorder
to get a nearer view I climbed the wall to the level of
the nest, crawled out on a rock within six feet of it, and
snapped her several times with my little pocket camera
before she would leave her young. As usual in dark
corners, the snapshots were under-exposed and gave
only a faint trace of the picture.

In several neighboring caves the owls were nesting
in high niches, well back in the gloomy twilight, safe
from prowling enemies and safe from man as long as
they would sit tight and not reveal their presence. ‘To
a close observer, however, their presence was easily

142 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

surmised by the pellets and small bones which strew
the ground wherever they nest or roost.

Down by the river a pair of horned owls had a nest
in the crack of a bold cliff above the river bank. On
March 25 there were three snow-white downy young,
only a few days old, with big, wobbly heads, blinking
eyes, strong legs, and hooked claws, already useful in
clinging to the nest and rocks. The mother bird was
covering them with her warm breast feathers and re-
fused to leave until I came within a few feet of her, and
then only after savagely snapping her bill at me. She
hissed, and puffed her feathers, in dire threats that
would have been heeded had I not been well balanced
on the shelf, from which I hoped to get a photograph
of the owlets. Having once long ago felt the claws of
a mother owl in my back while approaching her young,
I had no desire to repeat the experience. So I took
my snapshots quickly and crawled back along the nar-
row shelf, but not before the anxious mother had re-
turned, bringing her mate with her to help drive off the
enemy. Both came close, hooting and snapping their
bills at me in threatening tones as I hurried down over
the rocks to allay their fears and let them go back to
the young, which were already shivering in the cold
wind. ‘The mother was soon back on the nest, shelter-
ing the young, while the old male hooted occasionally
from a neighboring rock as I remained below to study
the scraps from their table.

On one side of the owl’s nest the fresh body of a
half-eaten cottontail was seen, and the crops of the
young owls bulged with the tender meat, carefully

Fic. 55. Two REGURGITATED PELLETS OF THE GREAT HORNED OwL

Some of the bones from disintegrated pellets found on the ground
under the owl’s nest in the main entrance of the cave. Most of the
small mammals of the vicinity, one small bird, snakes, lizards, horn-
toads, and many insects were represented.

143

. of age we

BIRDS OF THE REGION 145

picked off and fed to them by the parents. However,
most of the owl story was read at the base of the cliff
in pellets of fur and bones regurgitated from the
stomachs of the old owls, and by thousands of bones of
small animals scattered over the ground from old, dis-
integrated pellets. Asis well known, such small animals
as mice and rats are swallowed whole by owls, while
larger game up to the size of rabbits is torn apart and
bolted in coarse pieces,—fur, feathers, bones, and all.
The whole is retained in the stomach until the food
part is digested, when the remaining felted mass of fur,
feathers, and bones is gulped up and thrown from the
owls’ mouths. In course of time these pellets (Fig. 53)
drop apart and leave bits of bones scattered over the
surface of the ground. Most of the bones were easily
recognized as having belonged to the small mammals of
the region, but some, requiring more careful study and
comparison, were brought back, and were identified by
Remington Kellogg of the United States Biological
Survey.

Examination proved there was much similarity in
the pellets and bones from different caves and cliffs,
the principal variation depending upon local abundance
of the various kinds of prey eaten. The main local
differences consisted of considerable numbers of bones
of the guano bats in the Carlsbad Cave, the bones of
white-throated swifts in the Bighorn Cave, and the bones
of ducks and fish near the Pecos River. ‘The bones
not only indicated the regular food of the owls, but
also represented practically the whole rodent and small
animal population of the region. By far the greater

146 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

part of these bones were those of the common rodents,
such as jack rabbits, cottontails, wood rats, kangaroo
rats, cotton rats, pocket gophers, ground squirrels,
white-footed mice, grasshopper mice, and pocket mice.
Two of the little spotted skunks had been eaten; the
Guadalupe meadow mouse was represented by one
tooth; a few bats of several species were represented
by jaws; while in the big cave considerable numbers of
the guano bats had been swallowed whole, one of the
pellets shown in the illustration being composed almost
entirely of bat bones and fur. Near the river there
were feathers and bones of ducks, probably cripples
from the hunting season, and in caves in other localities
were found a few fragments of bird bones, one of a
coot, one of a black-headed grosbeak, one of a sparrow,
and one of a towhee. ‘These were so few in comparison
with the total number as to be of little economic impor-
tance, and formed by no means a regular part of the
owl’s diet. ‘There were also a few bones of several
species of snakes, of three species of lizards, of a horn-
toad, and some catfish bones, together with large num-
bers of extra legs, and other hard parts of many different
kinds of beetles, grasshoppers, moths, and large vine-
garoons. Although even the harder parts of many
species quickly disappear and with them the evidence,
insects apparently formed a far larger and more con-
stant part of the owl’s food than did birds or reptiles.

Aside from the unusual cases of local destruction of
bats and white-throated swifts, where found living in
dense colonies, the food of these owls is mainly of direct
benefit to man. The check on over-abundance of

BIRDS OF THE REGION 147

rabbits, wood rats, pocket gophers, kangaroo rats, and
numerous species of mice, is of vital importance in an
arid region devoted to agriculture and grazing, and if
removed would necessitate great expense in artificial
control of rodent pests. If the farmers and ranchmen
realized how useful the hawks and owls are to them,
fewer of the dead birds would be seen lying along the
roadsides, victims of thoughtless ‘‘gun toters.”

The yellow-billed cuckoos are found in the valley,
where their function of keeping the trees free from
caterpillars is generally appreciated. The road-runner
occurs over the valleys and hills, where the open
country gives free scope to its propensity for speeding
and provides abundance of game in the form of lizards,
snakes, grasshoppers, and other large insects. These
birds were often seen about the entrance of the great
cavern, and their characteristic stick nests were recog-
nized in the blue-thorn and buckeye bushes down in
the deep pit of the west entrance, as well as in some of
the tall yuccas out on the ridges and along the bottom
of the canyons. Occasionally one of these droll, long-
tailed birds was seen close to the cave buildings, and
on several occasions one came and peered into my
cabin door, snapping its bill and making its characteris-
tic low koo note. Late in April their louder notes were
often heard from the sides of the gulches, where the
birds were evidently searching for new nesting sites.

The woodpeckers of the cave region are naturally
few in number of species, although the little spotted
cactus woodpeckers are fairly common and often seen
along the roads, tapping on dry stalks of sotol, lechu-

148 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

guilla, or yucca, or pecking holes in the larger trunks of
the cane cactus, or in some old trunk of a live oak, or
even in a fence post. ‘They are true desert dwellers,
and are apparently as important to the protection of
desert vegetation as are other species to the welfare of
our forests.

Red-shafted flickers are common about the cave in
migration at least, and during late March and early
April two were living in the mouth of the great cave,
apparently spending the nights in small holes in the
limestone wall, high up under the arched doorway.
On several occasions they were seen trying to drive
away the pair of sparrow hawks that also had staked
out claims in the doorway, and once they were seen
attacking a rough-legged hawk that had taken refuge
there. Later, however, they disappeared, probably
moving northward or higher up in the mountains to
their regular breeding grounds.

A little higher in the hills the beautiful ant-eating
woodpeckers store acorns in the bark of oaks and yellow
pines, and occasionally a few of the big black-backed
and red-bellied Lewis’s woodpeckers are seen.

Both the western and Texas nighthawks occur here at
the cave, or in the valley nearby. On warm evenings
after the middle of March the plaintive poor-will was
often heard softly whistling its name near the camp
buildings at the mouth of the cave and over in the
canyon near the spring. More fully nocturnal than the
nighthawks, these small goatsuckers are rarely seen in
the daytime unless flushed from their roosting place
on the ground, when they fly a short distance on soft,

BIRDS OF THE REGION 149

rounded wings to another resting spot. But their
unmistakable note is one of the delightful, soft, plain-
tive sounds of the night, adding a rare charm to camp
life on these wide stretches of open country.
White-throated swifts are often seen hustling over the
cave entrance, their white, V-shaped throat markings
conspicuous against the black body, rendering them
unmistakable, as do also their lightning-like speed and
strident notes. In the Bighorn Cave in Slaughter
Canyon, some fifteen miles directly west from the
Carlsbad Cave, a colony of these swifts has long nested
in a great crack in the roof, some seventy-five feet
above the floor. This is an old breeding ground, as
shown by about a ton of guano and a bushel of swift
feathers on the ground underneath, and the fact that
some years ago three carloads of swift guano were
taken out, packed down the trail on burros, and shipped
to California as fertilizer. On April 30, 1924, about a
dozen of the swifts were seen, circling in and out of the
cave, entering and leaving the breeding crevice, but
these were doubtless only the early arrivals from farther
south. Owls and ring-tails had evidently preyed upon
them extensively, judging by the bones in the owl
pellets and the great numbers of wing feathers, with
quills clearly cut by the teeth of some carnivore. Both
of these enemies were common in the cave.
Hummingbirds began to appear in the canyons on
March 29, and were common about the flowers of the
Mexican madrone tree, the goat-bean bush and the
Mexican buckeye, and later about other flowers as
they appeared. The black-chinned was the first to

150 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

arrive and the last seen. The broad-tailed came soon
after the black-chinned and was also common through
the early part of April, leaving later for its higher
breeding range in the Guadalupe and Sacramento
mountains. The black-chinned remains to breed at
the caves and actually nests in the great doorway of
the west entrance to the Carlsbad Cave, and under the
arched entrance of the Bighorn Cave, fifteen miles
farther west. I was hoping to find the blue-throated
and other hummers when the ocotillos spread their
scarlet flags over the hot slopes, but was compelled to
leave on May 10 before they were fairly out.

Of flycatchers, the gray-backed, yellow-bellied Cas-
sin kingbirds are most conspicuous in the cottonwoods
of towns and ranches in the valley, where they breed
in friendly proximity to man, while the scarcely distin-
guishable Arkansas kingbirds seem to be more com-
monly found up in the hill country. A few ash-
throated flycatchers, with brown crests, were seen
around the cave in April, and they undoubtedly breed
in the vicinity. A few small flycatchers of the genus
Empidonax were seen about the cave, but as no speci-
mens were collected the species can not be given. ‘The
wonderful scissor-vailed flycaichers are said to breed at
the Livingston Ranch, thirty-five miles east of
Carlsbad.

The brown-bellied Say’s phoebe, called locally the cave-
bird, because a pair actually nests down in the natural
shaft of the cave, is one of the common and very friendly
birds of the region. Single birds or pairs were seen over
valley and canyon country from the time of my arrival,

BIRDS OF THE REGION 151

March 10, 1924. It is not improbable that this species
may spend much of the winter here or at slightly lower
levels, using the caves for protection from cold and
storms, as well as from the extreme heat of summer.
Karly in April the pair of birds occupying the cave shaft
were found to have a nest about thirty feet below the
surface, but in an inaccessible opening in the rocks
where the eggs and young could not be seen. The
birds were often seen at the nest, and later were regu-
larly carrying food to the noisy young. Jim White
told me that they have nested here every year since
he has known the cave, about twenty-three years.
Others were found nesting in three other caves nearby.
These records together with their well known habit of
nesting down in the shafts of old wells indicate their
fondness for subterranean protection. Apparently they
do not go back to the dark parts of the caves, but stay
in the cool, shadowy shafts, where there is a dim light.
During March and April both of the nesting birds
above mentioned regularly entered the shaft at night
to roost in the warm cave air safe from outside enemies.
As great numbers of moths and other insects also take
refuge in these warm shafts, the birds may find an
important part of their food here, even in cold weather.
In fact, caves and caverns seem to account for the
presence of these flycatchers in surprisingly cold winter
climates.

Horned larks migrate through the Pecos Valley, and
one or two of the forms stay to breed out on the open

parts of the plains country and on top of the Guadalupe
Mountains.

152 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

A few of the uncrested Woodhouse jays were seen in
the brushy pit at the west entrance to the great cave,
and others along the canyons both above and below.
They were especially common in Slaughter Canyon a
little to the west, as they are all through the foothill
country of the Guadalupe and Sacramento mountains.

White-necked ravens (Fig. 57), in size half-way be-
tween the common crow and common raven, are
abundant over the valley country, where they nest in
many of the tallest tree yuccas, and after the breeding
season gather in large flocks like crows. During
March and April they were mostly in pairs or small
parties of five or six scattered out over the country
and evidently looking for nesting places. One picked
up in the road on March 25, had been shot ‘‘just for
fun”? by some passerby. It made a good specimen,
and its stomach was found well filled with ants and
beetles. At times these birds may do some mischief
to crops, but generally they are useful as insect de-
stroyers or scavengers.

Western meadowlarks are common over the valley for
much of the year, and their rich song is one of the joys
of the roadside chorus.

The commonest oriole about the cave is the large,
lemon yellow, black-headed Scott oriole, with its loud,
rich song, which was frequently heard along the can-
yons during April, as the birds were inspecting their
last year’s nests in the tall yuccas, or catching insects
from the yucca and cactus flowers. Later, as the
century plants and lechuguillas blossomed, they would
find both food and drink, since they gather the rich

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BIRDS OF THE REGION 155

stores of nectar as weil as the insects from these
blossoms.

One of the most beautiful male Sennett orioles that I
ever saw was examining the materials of a cactus
wren’s nest in a cholla bush at my cabin door on March
24, and several other individuals were seen later about
the cave. Their flaming orange bodies and black
heads make a startling color pattern of unusual beauty.

Bullock ortoles are common in Carlsbad, and wherever
the cottonwood trees furnish swaying branches for their
basket nests and juicy caterpillars for their food.
Their rich songs are heard all day in the tree tops,
and an occasional flash of orange and black, with white
wing-spots, identifies the singers.

An occasional brilliant painted bunting, western blue
grosbeak, or cardinal is found nesting in the Pecos
Valley or in the canyons along the sides of the valley,
while the little brown Cassin sparrow would be easily
overlooked but for its enthusiastic flight song, uttered
in a wild abandon of joy as it flutters over the mesquite
tops.

The Mexican house finch is one of the best guides to
springs and water holes in this arid region, as it is
rarely found far from a supply of drinking water. In
the canyons the nests of this species found among the
dry leaves of tall yuccas, or inside of old oriole nests,
are generally an indication of springs or rainwater
holes in the rocks. In town and about ranches these
bright little crimson-headed finches are among the most
familiar and cheerful members of the bird population,
always warbling and twittering in a happy strain as

156 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

they build their nests and raise their young among the
vines and shrubbery of the dooryard or in the nearest
trees about the houses. To some extent they seem to
crowd out or successfully compete with the greatly
disliked English sparrow and to hold their own in close
proximity to man.

Goldfinches, western vesper sparrows, western lark
sparrows, western chipping sparrows, white-crowned
sparrows, juncos, black-throated sparrows, and _ rock
sparrows were all more or less abundant during April
about the cave, some on their way to higher or more
northern breeding grounds, and some waiting only for
warmer weather to begin nest building in the cave
region.

The green-tatled and arctic towhees are common in the
canyons and thickets and occasionally seen in the
brushy doorway of the great cave, while the brown
canyon towhees are common and friendly birds around
the cave buildings. These last-mentioned birds were
generally to be seen picking up crumbs about the door-
yards and woodpile, and were quick to come to grain
scattered out for the quail. They also came to my
porch and doorstep where I swept out the seeds and
rolled oats that the kangaroo rats had scattered about
my room. When my door was left open, they even
ventured in to pick up such food as their bright eyes
were quick to see, while watching me with cautiously
friendly expression. They are very talkative among
themselves, and often uttered little chirps and call-
notes seemingly to attract my attention, evidently
considering me a harmless and rather interesting and
useful addition to the fauna of the cave region.

BIRDS OF THE REGION 157

A brilliant rose-colored male Cooper tanager was seen
in the oak trees near the spring on April 24, gleaning
among the oak blossoms while waiting for warmer
weather up in the Guadalupe or Sacramento mountains,
where he finds congenial breeding grounds in company
with his duller relative, the hepatic tanager, and the
richly varied mountain or Louisiana tanager.

There is little attraction for swallows about the
cave, but along the river valleys barn, bank, and white-
bellied and violet green swallows are common, at least in
migration, while the cliff swallows were found building
mud nests on the cliffs in Dark Canyon, a few miles
north of the cave.

White-rumped shrikes are fairly common along the
roadside fences, where they sit and watch for prey. A
few were seen on the ridge near the cave. One ob-
served pecking and pounding at something on the
ground at the edge of a wood-rat house was driven
away, when a half-grown wood rat was picked up with
its skull broken by the bill of the butcher-bird.

Western mockingbirds are found all over the cave
country, and on every bright spring morning when I
opened my cabin door they were heard singing from the
tops of tall yuccas and cactus bushes. Their old nests
were found in cactus or thorn bushes, in many cases
far from any permanent supply of water.

The curve-billed thrashers (Figs. 53 and 56) were first
seen near the cave on March 20, and thereafter were
common and one of the richest scngsters of the region.
Many of their old stick nests, larger, coarser, and
rougher than the nests of mockingbirds, were found in.

158 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

tall yuccas, bush cactuses, and other thorny bushes.
The birds feed largely on fruit and on ground insects,
and seem to be comparatively independent of any
visible water supply.

Cactus wrens (Figs. 51 and 52) are found over the
whole valley country, and especially in the canyons
and up over the cactus-covered ridges, where they live
the year round, and build their numerous nests in the
thorniest plants they can find. A pair occupied a last
year’s nest in a large bush cactus (Opuntia arborescens)
within six feet of my cabin door at the cave camp.
When I arrived on March 11 the weather was still cool,
with high winds and freezing nights, but the birds were
there and as much in evidence as at any time of year.
One was using the old nest to sleep in at night, while
its mate was sleeping in another nest on the side of the
ridge above. My cabin faced the east, and through the
wide cracks in the boards the sun shone across my face
as soon as it came above the horizon in the morning;
but always just before the sun came up the Heleodytes—
sun-worshiper—would perch on the roof just over my
door and pour out his soul in the most rapturous song
of which he was capable. Often he would sing almost
continuously for half an hour before starting out to
hunt for his breakfast.

Later some inquisitive person pulled the nest open
to see what was in it, and the wrens gave it up and be-
van another nest in a cactus farther up the gulch. A
dozen of their nests in good repair, and many of them
in nightly use, could be found within a half-mile of the
cave entrance, and endless numbers beyond. The

BIRDS OF THE REGION 159

locality affords an excellent opportunity for a detailed
study of the habits of these remarkable birds.

Rock wrens occur all through the cave region, and a
pair was evidently nesting in the wall of the big western
doorway of the cave. Their habit of building up a
little heap of stones at the entrance of a nest hole in the
rocks is quaint and unusual, and their bobbing, bowing,
and teetering antics and squeaky notes while they hop
about on the big rocks or cling with strong feet to the
cliffs and walls are especially noteworthy.

Canyon wrens (Fig. 54), with their ringing songs
running down the scale, echoing from side to side of
the canyon walls, and issuing from the deep doorways
of almost every cave visited in this region, are among
the most thrilling and fascinating of the cave birds.
When I arrived on March 11, a pair was spending each
night down in the ladder shaft, but later as more
people were using the ladders they moved up to the
west entrance, where they were usually found within
the great doorway. Evidently they were considering
a nest site in a crack of the wall above the door. Ina
small cave about three miles to the west a pair had a
nest in a hole in the limestone roof back in the first
twilight of the entrance, within easy reach of my hand.
The hole was so filled with sticks and fibers that I
could not see into the nest without injuring it, so I did
not make further examinations. But on April 19
the old bird was on the nest at mid-day and evidently
incubating. On April 29, a pair of these wrens was
busily feeding young in a little hole in the roof of the
big cave, high up on the east side of Slaughter Canyon,

160 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

and the next day another pair of birds was found
occupying a niche in the roof of a cave on the west side
of the canyon.

Even while busily feeding young, the old birds sang
with great spirit, sometimes while their mouths were
bristling with wings and legs of moths brought in for
the young. Wren-like, the parents were bringing food
in rapid alternation and evidently supplying large
families. May their tribe increase.

I suspect that some of these wrens remain all winter
in and near the warm caves, getting their food from the
numerous insects that also take refuge there, or that
breed in the twilight of the first rooms.

A few lead-colored bush-tits, blue-gray and tiny, were
found along several of the brushy canyons, and on April
10, a beautiful, freshly built nest was found in Garden
Canyon, about a mile and a half from the big cave.
It was half-hidden in the dense branches of a juniper, on
a level with my eyes, hanging like a little sack or long
purse, eight or nine inches deep and with a little round
hole at one side near the top. It was beautifully woven
of soft, woolly plant fibers and spiderwebs, resembling
a coarse woolen sock without much heel or toe, and
must have been a warm and rather safe cradle for the
eggs and young. He would be a heartless collector
who would touch or injure one of these beautiful pockets
sufficiently to see the eggs at the bottom, or even to
learn all the secrets of its structure. The old birds,
gray mites as they are, make frantic efforts to drive
away intruders either from the nest or from their fam-
ilies of young as they are led about in the bushes.

BIRDS OF THE REGION 161

The little gray verdins, unique in habits as well as in
markings, with yellow face and reddish brown shoulders,
live all the year round in the valley and canyons of the
cave region, sleeping at night during the winter in their
warm, feather-lined nest in a thorn bush, and feeding
either on insects or berries as the season provides,—
true desert dwellers with no fear of heat, cold, or thirst.
Their globular, covered nests, woven of small and often
thorny sticks, are placed in catsclaw, allthorn, blue-
thorn, or some other of the spiniest bushes of the region,
where they are comparatively safe from attack or in-
jury. The nests are entered by a side door, and in
contrast to their bristling outside armor, are lined with
feathers and the softest and warmest materials. They
serve for winter beds and as a refuge from cold winds
and storms, as well as affording protection to the deli-
cate eggs and young in spring. The every-day and
all-the-year habits of these tiny denizens of the deserts,
if well known, would make a fascinating chapter on
desert life.

Western ruby-crowned and golden-crowned kinglets
migrate up and down the mountain slopes, and are
common in the canyons in April. They breed high
up in the mountains of the state.

Western gnatcatchers were noted in some of the nearby
canyons, and probably breed here, as this is within
their breeding range.

A Sierra hermit thrush was collected in April in the
next canyon over the ridge from the cave, but the
thrushes here are migrants on their way to their higher
‘mountain breeding grounds.

162 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

A few western robins were seen at Carlsbad on March
25, but most of these familiar birds go to higher eleva-
tions to breed, some of them even to the timberline
region of the mountains farther north in the state.

Eastern bluebirds were common about the cave from
the time of my arrival on March 11, to about the middle
of April, when they left for cooler climates.

CHAPTER 7

REPTILES OF THE REGION

Cold-blooded vertebrates are most numerous both
as regards species and individuals in warm climates.
Both Lower and Upper Austral zones are rich in rep-
tilian life, and the cave region, combining the faunas
of both of these zones, is especially so. Most of my
work at the cave was too early for successful collecting,
and the available notes are few, but the region is known
to be of special interest to the student of herpetology.

SNAKES

The only known poisonous reptiles are rattlesnakes,
of which three, and possibly five, species occur. The
large western diamond-backed rattlesnake (Crotalus
atrox) (Fig. 59) is found in the valley country and up
to the vicinity of the great cave, and many of the local
residents will tell of ‘‘hundreds” seen and killed ‘‘last
year.”’ Previous to May 2, 1924, all my efforts to
find and obtain specimens of these snakes in the Carls-
bad region were unsuccessful, although a dozen people
were helping me watch for them. On May 2 I founda
small young one that had fallen into a cave in Bob
Dow’s pasture and could not get out, and this was the
only rattlesnake I was able to see alive or collect up to
the time I left on May 9, although famous rattlesnake
dens, gypsum caves, and prairie-dog towns were visited
on hot days in search of them. Still later in the season

163

164 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

several were seen by Doctor Lee and his assistants, and
a number of others were known to have been killed in
the general region during the summer. Hunting rattle-
snakes, here, as elsewhere, is generally not very success-
ful, and rarely exciting or dangerous. Nevertheless, the
habit of wearing high boots or leather leggings when
tramping over the desert country is to many people a
source of real protection from the strain on their nerves.
Some of the diamond-backed rattlesnakes grow to large
size, attaining several feet in length, with thick and
powerful bodies, strongly marked with a row of trans-
verse quadrangles along the back. On account of their
large size their bite is sometimes very deep and dan-
gerous, and every precaution should be taken to avoid
being bitten by them.

The black-tailed, or green, rattlesnake (Crotalus
molossus) (Fig. 61) is occasionally met with in the
Guadalupe Mountains, and was perfectly described to
me by Jim White, who knows it in the vicinity of the
Carlsbad Cave. There are specimens from near Queen.
These snakes seem to belong to the mountains rather
than to the valley. They are rarely as large as the
diamond-back and are generally of an olive or greenish
color, sometimes having distinct bands, blotches, or
diamonds along the back and velvety black tails.
The danger from the bite of these or other rattlesnakes
increases with their size and the amount of poison
which they are able to inject into the circulation of
their victim.

The prairie rattlesnakes (Crotalus confluentus) (Fig.
60) are found over the higher plains country to the

Upper: Fic. 58. Western Butt SNAKE

A harmless and very useful reptile found near the Carlsbad Cave.
Photograph by Russell Reid, North Dakota.

Lower: Fic. 59. DIAMOND-BACKED RATTLESNAKE FROM TEXAS

Occasionally found in the Carlsbad Cave country. Photograph
by J. D. Mitchell.

165

.

: ‘ Ne M * y, ot a ”
i. eg at ee | ‘ a;
; 4 Fa AN Kare . we Ce

Upper: Fic. 60. THE PRAIRIE RATTLESNAKE
Photograph by Russell Reid, North Dakota

Lower: Fic. 61. BLACK-TAILED RATTLESNAKE FROM TEXAS
Photograph by J. D. Mitchell
166

CF
a ae

Upper: Fic. 62. Scaty Lizarp (SCELOPORUS CLARKII)

Lower: Fic. 63. DesERT WHIP-TAILED LizArp (CNEMIDOPHORUS
TESSELLATUS) AT CARLSBAD CAVERN

Exceedingly swift and eraceful in its motions

167

Upper: Fia. 64. Tiger Lizarp (CROTAPHYTUS WISLIZENI1)

One of the conspicuous lizards of the arid region

Lower: Fic. 65. WESTERN CoLLARED Lizarp (CROTAPHYTUS
COLLARIS BAILEYI)
One of the most spectacular lizards of the Cave Region. Photo-
graph by A. L. Gibson, Arizona.

168

REPTILES OF THE REGION 169

north and east, but occur also in the general region of
the cave. They are smaller and duller colored than the
diamond-back, or the black-tail, with no very dis-
tinctive markings.

Non-poisonous snakes of the Carlsbad Cave region
include the western bull snake (Pituophis sayt) (Fig.
58), the Mexican black snake (Drymarchon corias
melanurus), the coachwhip snake (Bascanion, species
not determined), the ring-necked snake (Diadophis
regalis regalis), and undoubtedly several water snakes
and other species. All of the snakes are more or less
useful in their destruction of rodents and insects, and
especially in helping to maintain the general balance
of nature so long established as to have become a
practical working arrangement of plant and animal
life. With the coming of the white man and his domes-
ticated animals many of these natural adjustments
have been disturbed and some species must be con-
trolled through man’s efforts. One of these new
adjustments seems to require the partial elimination
of the poisonous reptiles, and possibly of some of the
tree-climbing species that feast on the eggs and young
of our native birds, but the harmless snakes need not
be destroyed just because they are snakes. At least
let us show our intelligence by trying to know their
habits and understand their natures before we kill
them.

LIZARDS

Many species of lizards are seen on hot days along
the roadsides, among the desert shrubs, on the rocks,

170 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

and even running over the buildings about the cave
shafts. Widely differing groups are represented, as the
rough, scaly rock lizards (Fig. 62); the smooth, slender
whip-tailed lizards (Fig. 63); the big, brilliantly
colored collared lizards (Figs. 64 and 65); the bar-
tailed Texas lizards; several groups of small, plainly
colored and little noticed species; and two, if not three,
kinds of horned lizards (Fig. 66), commonly called
‘“horntoads.’’ <A close study at favorable seasons of
the year would undoubtedly disclose many other species
and groups, and possibly some forms that have not
been previously recognized. All are harmless and very
useful, as well as very interesting, animals, well worth
a careful study of habits. Most of their food consists
of insects and other small forms of animal life, the
destruction of which is not only important to our
human interests, but necessary in the balance of nature
that tends to prevent the sudden increase of highly
destructive species.

TURTLES

Turtles of several species inhabit the Pecos and
Black rivers, and pieces of their bones and shells
uncovered from old camp fire sites in the sand dunes
along the river banks show that they had an economic
value to the prehistoric tribes of this region. A small
box tortoise is occasionally found along the valley at
a distance from water, and even in the driest situa-
tions. This species seems perfectly adapted to desert
life and is able in some way to obtain sufficient mois-
ture for its needs.

CHAPTER 8

INVERTEBRATES OF THE CARLSBAD CAVERN!

Compared with other more open caves of the desert
region, the Carlsbad Cavern has a very meager inver-
tebrate fauna, consisting so far as determined of a few
insects, spiders, mites, millipedes, and scorpions (Fig.
67).

This paucity of life is evidently due in part to the
restricted openings, steep descents and great depth of
the cave, but still more to the lack of organic matter to
serve as food for such life. Plant life in the cave is
practically limited to lichen growth in the first rooms
and abundant molds throughout the cave. The only
other organic matter that can serve as animal food is

1 This chapter has been prepared mainly from field notes contrib-
uted by O. G. Babcock, of the U.S. Bureau of Entomology, who was
detailed by F. C. Bishopp, of the Texas Division of the Bureau, to
help collect the insects of the Carlsbad Cavern, and worked several
days with me in the cave during the last week of April, 1924. A
thorough collection even of the species in the cave could not be made
in this time, and the rich and interesting outside insect and other
invertebrate fauna could not be touched. The present list, however,
contains some new and interesting species and suggests the possibili-
ties of many more to be collected.

The specimens have been identified so far as possible by specialists
in the Bureau of Entomology, the Diptera by C. T. Greene, the
Coleoptera by H. S. Barber, the Lepidoptera by C. Heinrich, the
Orthoptera by A. N. Caudell, the Siphonoptera by C. R. Shannon,
and the spiders and mites by Dr. H. E. Ewing and C. R. Crosby.
The cordial assistance and codperation of the staff of the Bureau
is gratefully acknowledged.—Vernon Bailey.

171

172 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

derived from the bat guano, dead bats and other
animals, and such dead vegetable matter as is washed
in through the two natural openings.

During the twenty-year period when the guano was
being removed from the cave, many workmen with food
and clothing, lumber, machinery, and sacks were em-
ployed in the upper level of the cave, and some of the
materialsleft at that time, 1901 to 1921, and other refuse
left by visitors since, may have attracted some of the
insects and spiders. Most of the species collected, how-
ever, seem to be the more ancient inhabitants of the
cave.

When logs, stones, or boards are moved from the
surface of the ground, insects and other small creeping
things, beetles, spiders, bugs, centipedes and millipedes
are often seen scurrying here and there in a frantic
endeavor to find some dark retreat where they can hide
away from the light. The longer the log, stone, or
board has lain, the more numerous will be the small
things living under it, if moisture and food conditions
are favorable. Likewise in old abandoned burrows of
mammals, in hollow banks, or in cellars, it is the rule
and not the exception to find an abundance of insects
and other small life hiding away from the light. Some
of these are merely nocturnal species, which roam over
the surface of the ground at night and take refuge by
day in dark, moist cavities, while others more or less
permanently inhabit such places, finding both food and
lodging as well as protection from a host of natural
enemies. While other insects may be diurnal and
terrestrial, arboreal, arid or aquatic, according as each

Upper: Fic. 66. Hornroap (PHRYNOSOMA CORNUTUM)
Frequently found over the desert country

Lower: Fia. 67. THE VINEGAROON OR WHIP SCORPION
These venomous appearing but perfectly harmless animals are
extensively eaten by the owls of the caves, and parts of their shells
are shown in the owl-pellet material.

173

INVERTEBRATES OF THE CAVERN 175

has long ago found the niche of the universe to which
its structure and habits have become adjusted, so some
of the subterranean species have taken to cave life and
have become fully adjusted to cave conditions.

Even man, claiming supremacy in earthly intelli-
gence, has passed through many cave and cliff-dwelling
stages where advantages in safety, comfort, and con-
venience were won by such adaptation. It is also true
that miners become in time so accustomed to working
underground that they find a fascination in the under-
eround life. And why not? The daily and seasonal
variations in temperature are slight, theghumidity 1s
refreshing, and nervous strain is grea reduced.
This means bodily comfort, even though in time it may
mean, with the lower forms of animal life, degeneration
and the loss of many of the keenest faculties, and
eventually through generations noticeable structural
changes.

Such changes, however, are gradual, and only forms
that have been restricted to underground life for very
long periods show modifications therefrom worthy of
specific recognition. .

The insects and other creeping life of the Carlsbad
Cavern, if those of the great arched doorway and open
shaft were included, would take in most of the species
of the surrounding desert region, or at least of the cliff
and canyon country, but not sufficient collecting was
done to include more than a part of those of the cave
rooms or the regular, if not permanent, residents of the
cave. The following species were collected:

Cave crickets. The most conspicuous insects in the

176 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

cavern are two species of large, long-legged, pale-
colored crickets, both of which proved to be new to
science and have since been described and named in the
Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washing-
ton. While generally similar in appearance, they are
readily distinguished by size and color.

The Carlsbad cave-crickets (Ceutophilus carlsbad-
ensis Caudell) are the larger and browner of the two
species, with bodies about an inch in length, and very
long legs and feelers. ‘They are pale brown or yellowish
in color, with small black eyes. Many were found in
the first rooms of the cave where there is some trace of
light from the natural openings, but mainly in darkness
that to untrained human eyes seems stygian.

They were found moving slowly along the trails and
over the guano-strewn floor of the bat-inhabited rooms,
or hidden away under stones, boards, or old guano
sacks. When approached or alarmed, they made long
hops, but were generally slow and sluggish for crickets,
moving slowly and touching the ground in front with
the long antennae as if feeling their way. Apparently
they did not see well, if at all, but a quick motion in the
air or step on the ground near them, or even the bright
light of the lantern flashed upon them usually caused
them to move away or to make long jumps.

The opaque contents of their stomachs could usually
be seen through the translucent walls of the abdomen,
and a microscopic examination of the contents of a few
stomachs showed mainly insect remains, evidently from
bits of bat guano. Whether they ate the mold plants
with which they were often closely associated was not

_ INVERTEBRATES OF THE CAVERN Vi¢

fully determined. In many cases they gathered on
fresh meat of rabbits, wood rats, and dead cave mice
left for bait to attract other insects, and apparently
ate the meat and the vegetable contents of the rabbit
stomachs and _ intestines. Seemingly they are
scavengers.

In turn they are eaten by the cave mouse, Peromys-
cus leucopus tornillo, and often form the principal food
found in its stomach. ‘They may also be eaten to some
extent by the ring-tail, Bassariscus astutus flavus, and
so have a considerable influence on the larger life of the
cave.

The white cave-crickets (Ceutophilus longipes Cau-
dell) are slightly smaller than the brown ones, with
relatively longer legs, and much paler colors. ‘The
body is of a transparent whitish color, and the eyes
mere black specks, which seem to be structurally nor-
mal. However, as the crickets live mainly in the lower
levels of the cave beyond any possible trace of light,
the eyes may possibly be functionless. They seem to
have no power of sight in the light of the lantern, but
were sensitive to vibrations of a footstep or of a hand
waved rapidly in the air near them. The very long
and slender antennae are always waving in the air, or
touching the ground or objects far in advance of the
body, and doubtless convey to the small cricket-mind
whatever sensation is important to it.

These ghosts of crickets are frequently seen along the
trails in the farthest rooms: of the cave, where only
slight traces of organic matter are to be found. Still
the transparent bodies usually show specks of opaque

178 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

matter in the stomach and intestines, perhaps specks
of insect remains from bat droppings, or spores of the
mold plants, or mere particles of decaying vegetable
matter washed in long ago from the surface above, at
best a meager diet that through the long ages might
well have modified the bodies of these insects to their
present attenuated and ethereal appearance.

The cave mice caught in the lower levels of the cave
had been feeding to a considerable extent on these in-
sects, and some of their stomachs contained nothing
else. Here this mouse is supposedly the principal
food of the larger ring-tail, and thus these obscure and
far-away insects contribute in a humble and indirect
way towards converting earthy matter into higher and
higher types, each dependent upon lower forms, and
each more useful in our scale of estimates.

Blow Flies. Down one hundred and seventy feet
below the surface of the ground, in the first large room
of the cave, the slow, heavy buzzing of a fly was heard
on several occasions, but as the flies could not be de-
tected even by the light of a powerful gasoline lantern,
the insect net was useless. The deep-toned buzzing
suggested a blue-bottle or blow-fly, so meat bait was
tried. A freshly killed cottontail rabbit and a wood rat
were cut up and pieces distributed at strategic spots.
Within an hour two large blue blow-flies (Calliphora
vomiteria nigribarba Shannon) were captured near the
bottom of the east shaft, or bucket entrance to the cave.
Others were seen on the bait, and one was found laying
eggs in the meat. This was in total darkness, as the
old shaft, not in use, was covered, and practically no

INVERTEBRATES OF THE CAVERN 179

light could enter. With the skeleton of a great horned
owl found near the entrance of Yeitso’s Den, at the
extreme limit of all traces of outside light, were found
numbers of the pupa cases of the blow fly maggots,
identified as of the genus Calliphora and probably of
this species. Thus it is evident that these flies were at
home and breeding in the cave, although none was
found outside, where dozens of the common black
blow-fly (Phormia regina) were breeding in the carcass
of a dead colt not faraway. These blue-bottle or blow-
flies are common winter inhabitants of the southern
part of the United States, where they breed in animal
carcasses. It is possible that they may breed, or
aestivate, in the cool caverns during the heat of summer
and remain in the open during the colder seasons.

Seven other species of small flies were collected in
the cave, apparently all associated with the great
deposits of bat guano, and most of them attracted to
fresh meat used as a bait for such insects. Of these
were several specimens of tiny dung-flies (Leptocera
atra Adams) and two other specimens that may repre-
sent different species. Two specimens of a little moth-
fly or sewer-fly (Psychoda), species not determined,
were collected, one of these near fresh meat used as
bait. These are scavenger flies and were probably
breeding in wet places in the guano. Another little
cave dung-fly (Helomyza pectinata Lw.) was collected,
and might well be common in the cave, as other mem-
bers of the family have been. reared from bat, rabbit,
and bird dung.

Another tiny and very active little hwmp-backed fly

180 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

(Aphiochaeta rufipes Mg.) was taken on a dead mouse
in the bottom of the east shaft, about one hundred and
seventy feet below the surface. This was on the deep
beds of guano, where they probably breed. ‘Three
specimens of little false fungus-gnats of the genus
Sciara, were taken near the Pulpit, west of the west
entrance to the cave, where water dripping from the
roof made a wet and muddy spot on the cave floor.
They may have been breeding here, as species of this
genus are known to breed in moist places, in rotten
potatoes, and in old bark.

One specimen in poor condition of an Anthomiad fly
(Phaoma, species not determined) was collected but not
saved. These belong to the same family as the little
house fly.

Two small crane-flies of the genus Tipula were cap-
tured on the guano at the base of the east hoisting shaft
where guano was taken out years ago. As these in-
sects are supposed generally to breed in mud and
stream banks it may be that they had merely taken
refuge in the cave.

Beetles of four species were found in the first large
rooms of the cave where the bat guano, during thou-
sands of years, had accumulated to great depths. All
of the specimens collected were on the floor of the great
rooms one hundred and fifty to one hundred and seventy
feet below the surface, but not beyond the faint traces
of light that come indirectly through the two natural
openings overhead. From many parts of these rooms
some faint, far-away trace of light can be seen, but the
places where these beetles were procured were to our
eyes in apparently utter darkness.

INVERTEBRATES OF THE CAVERN 181

Three of the species are unnamed, but the largest and
most conspicuous one is a tenebrioid, one of the group
of darkling beetles (Embaphion contusum Lec.) found
also on the surface of the ground. The one specimen
procured may have fallen in or merely have taken ref-
uge in the cave. It was found about one hundred feet
west of the main elevator shaft on some carcasses of
mice that had been skinned for specimens. Still it
may be a regular inhabitant of the cave, as another
species of the genus is recorded by Doctor Schwarz as
found abundantly in cellars in Nebraska.

A remarkable new species of little ground beetle of
the genus Rhadine was collected under an overhanging
ledge about one hundred feet west of the main elevator
shaft. It is very similar in form and apparently re-
lated to the Comstockia subterranea Van Dyke, a blind,
cave-inhabiting beetle so rare that it also is known from
only one specimen.

Two tiny rove beetles of the genera Atheta and Oxypoda
belong to a large group, the Aleocharine staphylinids,
containing many unrecognized species in each genus.
They are abundant in this region but appear not to be
peculiar to caves. They are generally scavengers, liv-
ing on decaying animal or vegetable matter, and are
considered very useful.

Moths were represented by a number of specimens
of one little species of the clothes moth family, Tineidae,
found commonly in the guano-filled chambers of the
first large rooms of the cave. They were fairly common,
and often flew from the surface of the dry guano where
they were evidently breeding, as pupal cases were

182 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

collected in the guano. ‘They are scavenger moths,
the larvae feeding on dry animal remains, in this case
probably on the insect remains in the bat guano.

Several moths of a larger size, a half-inch or more in
length, were seen in the guano rooms, but the only
specimen collected was so crushed and damaged that
it could not be determined.

Fleas of two species were collected in the Carlsbad
Cavern, one on a mouse and the other on bats. Ona
cliff mouse (Peromyscus boylit rowley?) trapped near the
west entrance to the cave on one of the inner shelves
about one hundred feet below the surface were found
two female fleas of the genus Ceratopsyllus, but of an
undescribed species. As female fleas do not show good
specific characters, more material will be necessary for
a satisfactory description of the species. ‘These mice
are more abundant outside the cave than inside, so the
flea is probably not restricted to the cave.

A single harvest spider or daddy long-legs (Levobu-
num townsendt) was found in the cave at the bottom of
the east shaft, where it may have fallen in, but more
probably it had taken refuge there. They were com-
mon in the outside buildings, and were found in great
abundance in some of the other caves nearby, but
usually only as far back as some trace of light could
penetrate, and they probably merely take refuge at
certain seasons in the caves. ‘They are harmless to man
and useful in their habits of feeding upon other insects,
but a quivering mass of thousands of them vibrating
together on the low roof of a small cave is almost
terrifying to the uninitiated.

INVERTEBRATES OF THE CAVERN 183

Mites of two species were collected, one of the family
Gamasidae (undetermined genus and species), was
found on a guano bat, Tadarida mexicana. ‘The other
from a cave mouse proved to be a new species of
Tralaps, not yet givenaname. These mites are almost
microscopic lice living on the fur of mammals.

Tiny white millipedes were abundant in moist places
on the cave floor, a few hundred feet west of the west
entrance, near a great pile of rocks that cut off all light
from Yeitso’s Den. Here on damp or moist ground,
near a drip from the roof one hundred feet above, they
were found crawling slowly over the mud, while in a
hole dug two feet deep just below the rocks, dozens
were found crawling over the moist walls of clay. Not
a quarter of an inch in length, and very slow in their
movements, they were only noticed on close scrutiny
of the black ground. Generally the millipedes are
scavengers on dead or decaying organic matter, and
while repulsive in habits and appearance, they serve
a useful purpose in the economy of the earth.

Six specimens of another very rare flea (Siernopsillus
texanus Fox), including males and females, were col-
lected on the bats and on the guano under the bat roosts
in the cave. The type of this species from a guano bat
collected at Pecos, Texas, March 21, 1902, has hitherto
been the only known specimen of the species, and its
host may very probably have come from the Carlsbad
Cavern. ‘Two of the fleas were on guano bats caught
as they were coming out of the cave, and four were
found crawling or hopping in the guano under the bat
roosts. One (No. 11,516) was taken from a Myotis

184 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN

evotis from Dow’s Cave, near Carlsbad. There is a
possibility, however, that this flea may have been in the
eloth sack in which the Myotis was carried and have
originally come from the guano bats.

A small bristletail of the thysanuran genus Campodea,
probably a new species not yet fully identified, was
collected on the floor of the cave near the entrance of
Yeitso’s Den where all outer light vanishes. ‘These
very primitive insects are related to the silverfish or
fish moths, well known in dark corners of old houses.

Five specimens of true spiders, including three spe-
cies in three different families were collected in the
first large rooms where the bats live. They were on
the side walls near the bottom, on the guano-strewn
floor, or under old moldy guano sacks. Many old
webs showed that the spiders were not rare. The
species have since been named and described by C.
R. Crosby in the Proceedings of the Entomological
Society of Washington. They stand as follows:

Family PuHoucipan, Physoeyclus enaulus Crosby
Family AGELENIDAB, Tegenaria antrias Crosby
Family AGRIOPIDAE, Pererigone antraca Crosby

Mr. Crosby says that none of these spiders shows special
adaptation to cave life. They were evidently subsist-
ing on the decaying vegetable matter which had washed
in through the entrance of the cave, and being mixed
with the bat guano, formed a slimy ooze in wet places.

A tiny crustacean, about a sixteenth of an inch in
length, with relatively large pinching claws, somewhat
scorpion-like, but still unidentified, was collected on

INVERTEBRATES OF THE CAVERN 185

the floor of the cave near the entrance of Yeitso’s Den,
at the last trace of outside light. It was found on a
piece of fresh meat which had been used as insect bait
and which had evidently attracted it.

A small false scorpion of the genus Chelanops, not yet
specifically identified, was collected in the cave near the
east elevator shaft, one hundred and seventy feet below
the surface and in almost total darkness. It was on the
dry beds of guano, where mites and young spiders may
have furnished it food, for they are predatory arachnids
related to the scorpions.

ment

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5 (Tt Al

INDEX

A

aborigines, 39.

Acacia constricta, 11, 28.

agave, 44.

Agelenidae, 184.

Agriopidae, 184.

Aleocharine, 181.

algireta, 30, 46.

alithorn, 11, 29.

Anenaria, 19.

anhinga, 130.

antelope, 40, 55.

anthomiad fly, 180.

Antilocapra americana ameri-
cana, 50.

Antrozous pallidus, 121.

Apache plume, 16, 32.

Aphiochaeta rufipes, 180.

armadillo, Texas, 60.

ash, green, 21.

aspen, 18.

Atheta, 181.

Atriplex canescens, 32.

avocets, 130.

B

Baccharis, 11.
badger, Mexican, 102.
banner-tail, 83.
barberry, three-leaved, 11.
trifoliate, 30.
Bascanion, 169.
Bassariscus astutus flavus, 105.
bat, big brown, 122.
big pale, 121.

bat, brown, 17.
California, 129.
canyon, 129.
cave, 126.
fringed, 126.
guano, 12.
hoary, 18, 123.
house, 12, 124.
jack-rabbit, 120.
little canyon, 12.
Mexican free-tailed, 108.
red, 123.
silver, 122.
silver-haired, 18.

bats, 4.
hibernation, 112.

bean, coral, 28.
goat, 28.

bear, 40.
black, New Mexico, 104.
grizzly, 49.

Texas, 104.
beaver, Mexican, 44, 82.
beetles, 172, 180.

rove, 181.

Bell Ranch, 50.

Berberis trifoliata, 46.

Big Canyon, 53, 54.

bighorn, 53.

Bighorn Cave, 31, 149.

Bison bison bison, 49.

blackbird, Brewer, 133.

. red-winged, 133.
rusty, 133.
yellow-headed, 133.

187

188

Black River, 20.
blow flies, 178.
bluebird, chestnut-backed, 18.
eastern, 162.
blue-thorn, 11, 30.
bobcat, 44.
mountain, 94.
plateau, 16.
Bovidae, 53.
bristle-tail, 184.
buckeye, Mexican, 11, 22.
buffalo, 40, 49.
bunting, painted, 12, 155.
white-winged, 133.
bush-tit, lead-colored, 160.
buzzards, turkey, 136.

C

cactus, 11, 37.
cane, 38.
cliff, 38.
Devil’s head, 37.
Calliphora, 179.
Calliphora vomiteria nigribarba,
178.
Campodea, 184.
Canis latrans texensis, 95.
Canis mexicanus nubilus, 96.
cardinal, 155.
Carlsbad Cavern, 2.
description, 3, 4, 5.
location, 1.

Castor canadensis mexicanus, 82.

catfish, 43.

catsclaw, 16, 28.

cave bird, 150.

cave cat, 4.
ring-tailed, 105.

cave pearls, 3.

Ceanothus, 46, 55, 58.

INDEX

centipedes, 172.
century plant, 37, 44.
Parry, 16.
Ceratopsyllus, 182.
Cervus canadensis merriami, 56.
Ceutophilus carlsbadensis, 176.
Ceutophilus longipes, 177.
Chelanops, 185.
cherry, black, 21.
wild, 46.
chestnut, 20.
Chilopsis linearis, 31.
chipmunk, 17.
Choysia dumosa, 31.
Citellus grammurus grammurus,
66.
Citellus mexicanus parvidens,
67.
clay, pottery, 48.
Comstockia subterranea, 181.
Conepatus mesoleucus mearnsi,
98.
coots, 43, 130.
coral bean, 28.
cormorant, 130.
Coronado, 48, 49.
Corynorhinus macrotis palles-
cens, 120.
cottontail, 43.
desert, 11.
mountain, 17.
small, 62.
cotton-top, 43, 133.
cottonwood, 20.
desert, 20.
cougars, 93.
cowbirds, 133.
coyote, 44.
Texas, 95.
crane-fly, 180.

INDEX 189
cranes, 43, 130. ducks, 43, 130.
Cratogeomys castanops, 91. dung-flies, 179.
creeper, Rocky Mountain, 18.
creosote bush, 11, 15, 27. iD
crickets, cave, 4, 175. eagles, golden, 136, 139.
Carlsbad cave, 176. elk, 40.

white cave, 177.
crossbill, 18.
Crotalus atrox, 165.
Crotalus confluentus, 164.
Crotalus molossus, 164.
crown of thorns, 29.
crucifixion plant, 29.
crustacean, 184.
cuckoo, yellow-billed, 147.
curlews, 130.
currants, wild, 46.
Cynomys ludovicianus, 68.

D

daddy long-legs, 182.

Dalea, 29.

Dark Canyon, 53, 157.

Dasylirion leiophyllum, 34.

Dasypus novemcinctus texanus,
60.

deer, 40.

mule, 17.
gray, 16, 40, 58.
white-tailed, 17.

plains, 57.

devil’s walking stick, 27.

Diadophis regalis regalis, 169.

Didelphis virginianus, 59.

Dipodomys merriami merriami,
86.

Dipodomys spectabilis baileyi,
83.

Drymarchon corias melanurus,
169.

Merriam, 18, 40, 49, 56.
Embaphion contusum, 181.
Empidonax, 150.
Eptesicus fuscus, 121, 122.
Erigeron, 19.

Espejo, Antonio de, 50.

¥

falcon, prairie, 139.
Fallugia paradoxa, 32.
Felis couguar aztecus, 93.
Felis hernandesil, 92.
Fiber zibethicus ripensis, 81.
finch, Mexican house, 155.
fir, 18.
fleas, 182.
flicker, red-shafted, 17, 148.
fly, hump-backed, 179.
flycatcher, ash-throated, 150.
olive-sided, 18.
scissor-tailed, 150.
Fouquieria splendens, 27.
fox, gray, 16, 44.
gray, Arizona, 99.
Franks Canyon, 53.

G

Gamasidae, 183.

Garden Canyon, 26, 160.
geese, 43, 130.

gnatcatcher, plumbeous, 12.
" western, 161.
gnats, fungus, 180.

goat, angora, 58.

190 INDEX
goat bean, 28. I
goldfinch, 156. insects, 4.
gooseberries, wild, 46. Indians, 39.
grapes, wild, 46. Apache, 48.
grass, bear, 33, 47. Mescalero, 47.
sweet, 47.
tobasa, 15. J
grease-brush, 32. jaguar, 92.
grebes, 130. jay, long-crested, 18.
grinding-holes, 39, 45 pinyon, 16.
grosbeak, western blue, 155. Woodhouse, 16, 152.
ground squirrel, 43. joint fir, 29.

Mexican, 67.

Rio Grande striped, 11.

thirteen-lined, 17.
Guadalupe Canyon, 53.
guano, 2, 5, 108, 113.
Gunsight Canyon, 53.

H

hackberry, 16, 22, 46.
havelin, 59.
hawk, ferruginous rough-legged,
136, 139.
marsh, 136.
sparrow, 139.
Swainson, 136, 139.
western red-tailed, 136, 139.
zone-tailed, 139.
Heleodytes, 158.
Helomyza pectinata, 179.
herons, 43, 130.
horntoad, 18, 170.
desert, 16.
hummingbirds, 149.
black-chinned, 149.
blue-throated, 150.
broad-tailed, 17, 150.
hydrophobia cats, 102.

junco, 133, 156.
gray-headed, 18.

juniper, 15, 22.
blue-leaved, 22.
checker-barked, 22.
mountain, 22.
round-topped, 22.

K

kangaroo rat, Merriam, 86.
kingbird, Arkansas, 150.
Cassin, 12, 150.
kinglet, golden-crowned, 18, 161.
ruby-crowned, 18.
western, 161.

L

Lachnosterna, 98.
lark, horned, 16, 133, 151.
Lasionycteris noctivagans, 122.
lechuguilla, 11, 37, 44.
Leguminosae, 28.
Leiobunum townsendi, 182.
Leptocera atra, 179.
Lepus californicus texianus, 60.
Life Zones, 7.

Austral, Lower, 8.

INDEX

Life Zones, Austral, Upper, 8, 15.
Canadian, 8, 18.
Hudsonian, 18.
Sonoran, Lower, 8.
Sonoran, Upper, 15.
Transition, 8, 16.

Ligusticum, 19.

lizards, 169.

Clark scaly, 12.
collared, 170.
leopard, 12.
Poinsett scaly, 16.
scaly fence, 16.
scaly rock, 170.
Texas, 170.

Texas horned, 12.
Texas spotted-tailed, 12.
western collared, 16.
whip-tailed, 12, 170.

Llano Estacado, 53.

lobos, 96.

locust, New Mexico, 17, 26.

longspurs, 133.

Lynx rufus uinta, 94.

M

McKenzie Ranch, 50.
McKittrick Canyon, 53.
McKittrick Cave, 120, 125.
madrone, Mexican, 20.
mahogany, mountain, 16, 55, 58.
Mammillaria, 46.
manzanita, 16, 46, 58.
maple, large-leaved, 17.
New Mexico, 21, 46.
meadowlark, 133.
western, 152.
meadow mouse, Guadalupe, 17.
Rocky Mountain, 18.
Mephitis mesomelas varians, 97.

191

mescal, 37, 44.
mescal pits, 39, 45.
Mescalero Cave, 56.
mesquite, 11, 25, 28, 45.
millipedes, 171, 183.
Mimosa biuncifera, 28.
mints, 47.
mites, 171, 183.
mockingbird, western, 12, 157.
Mormon tea, 29.
moth-fly, 179.
moths, 181.
mountain lion, gray, 93.
mourning dove, 135.
mouse, cave, 11, 69.
cliff, 73.
grasshopper, 74.
pocket, 12, 89.
Baird, 89, 90.
Dutcher, 89, 90.
Kansas, 89, 90.
white-footed, Rowley, 16.
mulberry, 16, 22.
muskrat, Pecos, 44.
Pecos River, 81.
mussels, 43.
Mustela frenata neomexicana,
97.
Myotis californicus pallidus, 129.
Myotis incautus, 124.
Myotis thysanodes, 126.
Myotis velifer, 126.

N

Neotoma albigula, 43, 75.

Neotoma micropus, 43.

Neotoma micropus canescens, 79.

nighthawk, Texas, 12, 148.
western, 148.

nutcracker, Clark, 19.

192

nuthatch, pygmy, 18.
red-breasted, 18.
Rocky Mountain, 18.

Nycteris borealis, 123.

Nycteris cinerea, 123.

O

oaks, 20.
gray, 16.
New Mexico, 17.
scrub, 21, 58.
Vasey, 16.
Oak Springs, 20.
ocotilla, 11, 15, 27.
Odocoileus hemionus canus, 58.
Odocoileus virginianus macrou-
rus, 57.
onions, wild, 45.
Onychomys leucogaster ruido-
sae, 74.
Onychomys torridus, 74.
opossum, Virginia, 59.
oriole, Bullock, 155.
hooded, 12.
Scott, 12, 152.
Sennett, 155.
Orthocarpus, 19.
Ovis canadensis texiana, 53.
owl, barn, 140.
burrowing, 140.
great horned, 140.
screech, 17, 140.
spotted, 17, 140.
Oxypoda, 181.

te

panthers, 93.

Parosela formosa, 29.

Pecari angulatus angulatus, 59.
peccary, 59.

INDEX

Pererigone antraca, 184.
Perognathus, 89.
Perognathus flavus, 89.
Perognathus hispidus paradoxus,
89.
Perognathus merriami gilvus, 89.
Peromyscus boylii rowleyi, 73.
Peromyscus leucopus tornillo,
69.
petaya, 46.
phalaropes, 130.
Phaoma, 180.
phoebe, Say, 150.
Pholcidae, 184.
Phormia regina, 179.
Physoeyclus enaulus, 184.
pigeon, band-tailed, 17, 135.
pine, nut, 16, 22.
white, southern, 17.
yellow, 20, 25.
western, 17.
pine siskin, 18.
pinyons, 22, 47.
Pipistrellus hesperus hesperus,
129.
pipit, 19.
Pituophis sayi, 169.
plovers, 130.
pocket gopher, 43.
chestnut, 91.
fulvous, 17.
lechuguilla, 12, 90.
poniel, 32.
poor-will, 16, 148.
popotillo, 29.
potatoes, wild, 45.
prairie dog, black-tailed, 68.
prairie-dog towns, 43.
prickly pear, 38, 46.
Procyon lotor mexicanus, 105.

pronghorn, 55.
Psychoda, 179.

Q

quail, blue, 133.
fool, 48, 134.
Mearns, 16, 43, 134.
scaled, 43, 133.

R

rabbit brush, 16.
rabbit, jack, 40.

jack, Texas, 11, 60.
raccoon, 44.

Mexican, 105.
rat, cotton, 11, 81.

kangaroo, 11, 43, 83, 86.
Rattlesnake Canyon, 53.
raven, 16.

white-necked, 12, 152.
Rhadine, 181.
Rhodiola, 19.
ring-tails, 4, 44.
road-runner, 12, 147.
robin, western, 18, 162.
rose, cliff, 32.

Ss

sages, 47.
sandpipers, 130.

Sarcobatus vermiculatus, 32.

Saxifraga, 19.

Sciara, 180.

scorpion, 171.
false, 185.

Sedum, 19.

service berry, 16, 46.

shadscale, gray, 32.

sheep, mountain, 40.
mountain, Texas, 16, 53.

INDEX 193

shrew, 18.
shrikes, white-rumped, 157.
Sigmodon hispidus berlandieri,
81.
Silene, 19.
silk tassel bush, 16.
skunk, 44.
bush, 16, 30, 47.
hog-nosed, 98.
little Rio Grande spotted, 101.
long-tailed Texas, 97.
Mearns white-backed, 12.
Rio Grande spotted, 12.
Texas, 12.
Slaughter Canyon, 25, 31, 53, 58.
snakes, 163.
coachwhip, 169.
black, Mexican, 169.
bull snake, prairie, 16.
western, 169.
garter, western, 18.
rattlesnakes, 163.
black-tailed, 16, 164.
diamond-back, Texas, 12.
western, 163.
green, 164.
plains, 16.
prairie, 164.
ring-necked, 169.
snipe, 130.
soapweed, 47.
solitaire, Townsend, 19.
sotol, 11, 20, 33, 34, 45.
Spanish bayonets, 33.
sparrow, black-chinned, 16.
black-throated, 156.
Cassin, 155.
desert, 12.
rock, 156.
Scott, 16.

194

sparrow, western chipping, 156.
western lark, 156.
western vesper, 156.
white-crowned, 18, 156.
spiders, 171, 184.
harvest, 182.
Spilogale leucoparia, 101.
spruce, 18.
Douglas, 17.
Engelmann, 19.
squirrel, rock, 16, 43, 66.
White Mountain spruce, 18.
‘star leaf, 16, 31.
Sternopsillus texanus, 183.
‘stilt, black-necked, 130.
sumac, 30.
evergreen, 30.
green, ll.
small-leaved, 11, 30.
swallow, bank, 157.
barn, 157.
cliff, 157.
violet-green, 157.
white-bellied, 157.
swans, 130.
swift, white-throated, 149.
Sylvilagus auduboni minor, 62.
syringa, wild, 16, 31, 55, 58.

ly

Tadarida mexicana mexicana,
108.

tanager, Cooper, 16, 157.
hepatic, 157.
Louisiana, 157.
mountain, 18, 157.

Taxidea berlandieri, 102.

tea, wild, 46.

Tegenaria antrias, 184.

INDEX

tenebrioid, 181.

Thomomys lachuguilla, 90.

thrasher, curved-billed, 157.

thrush, Audubon hermit, 18.
Sierra hermit, 161.

Tineidae, 181.

Tipula, 180.

tobacco, wild, 46.

tortoise, box, 170.

towhee, arctic, 156.
canyon, 16, 156.
green-tailed, 17, 156.
spurred, 18.

Tralaps, 183.

trees, 20.

turkey, Merriam, 17, 135.
wild, 40.

turtles, 170.
hard-shelled, 43.
soft-shelled, 43.

U

unicorn plant, 47.

Urocyon cinereoargenteus scot-
tii, 95.

Ursus americanus amblyceps, 104.

Ursus texensis texensis, 104.

Vv

varnish bush, 11, 15.
verdin, 161.
vireos, 133.

sd

walnut, black, 21, 45.
Walnut Canyon, 4, 53, 98.
wapiti, Arizona, 56.

INDEX

warblers, 135.
Audubon, 18.
Grace, 18.

weasel, New Mexico bridled, 97.

willets, 130.
willow, desert, 11, 31.
wolf, gray, 96.

woodpecker, ant-eating, 17, 148.

cactus, 12, 147.
hairy, 17.
Lewis, 148.

wood rat, 11, 43.
Colorado, 17.
gray, 79.
white-throated, 16, 75.

wren, cactus, 12, 158.
canyon, 159.
rock, 159.

yt

yellowlegs, 130.

yucca, 20, 33, 47.
banana-fruited, 16.
large-fruited, 11.
narrow-leaved, 11.

Yucca macrocarpa, 33, 34.

Yucca radiosa, 33, 47.

Z
Zizyphus lycioides, 30.

195

Sans Tache

Sans Tache

N THE “elder days of art” each artist or craftsman
enjoyed the privilege of independent creation. He
carried through a process of manufacture from beginning

toend. The scribe of the days before the printing press was
such a craftsman. So was the printer in the days before the
machine process. He stood or fell, as a craftsman, by the
merit or demerit of his finished product.

Modern machine production has added much to the worker’s
productivity and to his material welfare; but it has deprived
him of the old creative distinctiveness. His work is merged
in the work of the team, and lost sight of as something
representing him and his personality.

Many hands and minds contribute to the manufacture of a
book, in this day of specialization. There are seven distinct
major processes in the making of a book: The type must first
be set; by the monotype method, there are two processes, the
“keyboarding” of the MS and the casting of the type from
the perforated paper rolls thus produced. Formulas and
other intricate work must be hand-set; then the whole
brought together (‘“composed’’) in its true order, made into
pages and forms. The results must be checked by proof
reading at each stage. Then comes the ‘‘make-ready” and
press-run and finally the binding into volumes.

All of these processes, except that of binding into cloth or
leather covers, are carried on under our roof.

The motto of the Waverly Press is Sans Tache. Our ideal
is to manufacture books ‘“‘without blemish”—worthy books,
worthily printed, with worthy typography—books to which
we shall be proud to attach our imprint, made by craftsmen
who are willing to accept open responsibility for their work,
and who are entitled to credit for creditable performance.

The printing craftsman of today is quite as much a craftsman
as his predecessor. There is quite as much discrimination
between poor work and good. We are of the opinion that
the individuality of the worker should not be wholly lost.
The members of our staff who have contributed their skill of
hand and brain to this volume are:

Proof Room: Sarah Katzin, Alice Reuter, Mary Reed, Lucile Bull,
Ruth Treischman, Angeline Eifert, Ethel Strasinger, Dorothy Stras-
inger, Audrey Tanner, Lillian Gilland, Ida Zimmerman, Catherine
Miller, Shirley Seidel.

Casters: Kenneth Brown, Ernest Wann, Mahlon Robinson, Charles
Aher, George Smith, Martin Griffen, Henry Lee, Charles Fick,
George Bullinger.

Cutter: William Armiger.
Folder: Lawrence Krug, Shipley Dellinger.

Composing Room: George Moss, Arthur Baker, Robert Lambert,
James Jackson, Ray Kauffman, Anthony Wagner, Edward Rice,
Richard King, Theodore Nilson, Henry Shea.

Keyboard: Mary Franck, Helen Twardowicz, Anna Rustic.

Press: Thomas Shreck, Andrew Becker, Raymond Bauer, Emory
Parsons, George Lyons.

Anatomy of the Wood Rat

By A. BRAZIER HOWELL

A study in the comparative anatomy of the sub-
genera of the American wood rat (genus Neotoma),
illustrated with 37 figures, 8 in color, and 3 half-tones.
A study of great interest to the biologist, the zoologist,
etc.

Monographs of the American Society of Mammalogists
Number One. $5.00

The Beaver
Its Work and Its Ways

By EpwarpD R. WARREN

The first adequate study of the beaver in North
America produced in half-a-century. Based upon a
full knowledge of all past writings and a large personal
observation. Scientifically accurate, yet simple and
readable in style.

Monographs of the American Society of Mammalogists
Number Two. $3.00

THE WILLIAMS & WILKINS COMPANY
Publishers of Scientific Books and Periodicals
BALTIMORE, U.S.A.

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