.
Notwithstanding their venom they have beauty, and when one is seen
at the bottom of some lonely, unfrequented canyon, tail buzzing, head
erect, and defiant, glistening eyes, a man feels like apologising for
the intrusion. Above in the limpid sunlight floats the great eagle,
deadly enemy of the rattlesnake; from a near-by bush the exquisite song
of the mocking-bird trills out, and far up the rocks the hoof-strokes
of the mountain sheep strike with a rattle of stones that seems music in
the crystal air. Yonder the wild turkey calls from the pine trees, or
we hark to the whir of the grouse or the pine-hen. Noisy magpies startle
the silence of the northern districts, and the sage-hen and the
rabbit everywhere break the solitude of your walk. Turn up a stone and
sometimes you see a revengeful scorpion: anon the huge tarantula comes
forth to look at the camp-fire. As one sits resting on a barren ledge,
the little swifts come out to make his acquaintance. Whistle softly and
a bright-coated fellow will run up even upon your shoulder to show his
appreciation of the Swan Song. Antelope dart scornfully away across
the open plains, and the little coyote halts in his course to turn the
inquisitive gaze of his pretty bright eyes upon this new animal crossing
his path. The timber wolf, not satisfied with staring, follows, perhaps,
as if enjoying company, at the same time occasionally licking his chaps.
When the sun goes down his long-drawn bark rolls out into the clear
winter sky like a song to the evening star, rendering the blaze of the
camp-fire all the more comfortable. Under the moonlight the sharper bark
of the coyote swells a chorus from the cliffs, and the rich note of the
night-storm is accentuated by the long screech of the puma prowling on
the heights. In daylight his brother, the wild-cat, reminds one of Tabby
at home by the fireside. There is the lynx, too, among the rocks; and
on the higher planes the deer, elk, and bear have their homes. In Green
River Valley once roamed thousands of bison. The more arid districts
have the fewest large animals, and conversely the more humid the most,
though in the latter districts the fauna and flora approach that of the
eastern part of the continent, while as the former are approached the
difference grows wider and wider, till in the southern lowlands there is
no resemblance to eastern types at all. Once the streams everywhere had
thousands of happy beaver, with their homes in the rive