CHAPTER IX. _Desert Animals._--Meeting desert requirements--Peculiar

desert character--Desert Indians--Life without water--Endurance of the jack-rabbit--Prairie dogs and water--Water famine--Coyotes and wild-cats living without water--Lean, gaunt life--Fierceness of animals--Attack and escape--The wild-cat--Spring of the cat--Mountain lion--His habits--The gray wolf--Home of the wolf--The coyote--His cleverness--His subsistence--His background--The fox--The prey--Devices for escape--Senses of the rabbit--Speed of the jack-rabbit--His endurance--The “cotton-tail”--Squirrels and gophers--Desert antelope--His eyes, nose, and ears--His swiftness--The mule-deer--Deer in flight--White-tailed deer--The reptiles--Defence of poison--The fang and sting--The rattlesnake and his poison--Spiders and tarantulas--Centipedes and scorpions--Lizards and swifts--The hydrophobia skunk--The cutthroat band--The eternal struggle--Brute courage and character--Beauty in character--Graceful forms of animals--Colors of lizards--Mystery of motion 150