A DESERT BEETLE AND HIS GYMNASTICS
This desert beetle is called by the Indians "The-Bug-that-Stands-on-His-Head." At first I thought he was taking stomach exercises, for beetles have wonderful digestions, as you may learn from Fabre's book on "The Sacred Beetle." But Mr. Howard, Chief of the Bureau of Entomology at Washington—Uncle Sam's great authority on bugs—tells me this is an attitude many beetles take on the approach of an enemy, the object being to discharge a kind of poison-gas which is intended to drive him away; and usually does.
WHAT A WONDERFUL FLYING MACHINE HE IS!
But what's that away up in the sky? A flying machine? Yes, one of the most wonderful flying-machines in the world—a vulture. There he goes, sweeping in wide circles, as he hunts along the mountain range, mile after mile, closely scanning the base of the cliffs for the bodies of unfortunate creatures that have fallen over. Vultures will keep in the air in that way whole days at a time, following the cliffs and canyons for hundreds of miles. But for all that it is sometimes a week or two between meals with a desert vulture.
How does the vulture soar so wonderfully? Nobody is quite sure about it. Often for hours there is no motion of the wings, as far as anybody has been able to make out, and a soaring vulture seems to be able to move as easily against the wind as with it. You'll not be surprised to hear that it takes time to learn to fly like that—a whole year. And even after the first year the young vultures stay for a good while under the instruction of their parents, going out hunting with them every day and sleeping with them in the nest on the cliffs at night.
V. A Day in the Sahara
How would you like to spend a day in the famous Sahara desert with the camels and the people and the dogs; and, I was going to say, the flies? But the flies can't stand it. They stay in the villages on the borders. Only a few are ever bold enough to start with a caravan and these soon turn back.
When a desert Arab and his family start on a journey the tents, the sleeping-rugs, the scanty provisions, and the women and children are piled on the camels, the dogs take their places at the end of the procession and the men at the head, and the caravan starts.
As the chieftain throws the end of the burnoose (his hooded cloak) across his shoulder and, with his carbine in the hollow of his arm, stalks in advance of all, you feel that if you were an Arab boy you would be as proud as he is to have a father like that. What a splendid figure; what a strong, grave, handsome face, and utterly without fear! All his poor possessions would hardly pay a month's rent in a fine city apartment, but he has the proud bearing of a king. He looks as if he had just stepped out of a picture in a Bible story-book.