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seen, the variety of vegetable foods here is small though the species present are found in abundance. It is probable that other species of importance formerly grew on the lake shores but that they have been killed out by grazing stock.

There were many snails (see specimens) in the lakes and the usual forms of animal and insect life were abundant. Observation revealed nothing of especial interest in there however.

[[underlined]] GENERAL DISCUSSION. [[/underlined]]

The small number of breeding ducks found in this Chusca Mountain lake area was disappointing but as has been pointed out conditions were highly unfavorable for them. It was said that a good many ducks were present here in fall during the migration and this is probably true. Food would be fairly abundant then and the birds are not hunted as the Navajos do not kill birds and White men do not enter this region save at long intervals so that hunting is practically unknown. What few ducks I saw were very tame and permitted a close approach. A small number of drakes that have bred elsewhere come in here for summer, and females and young probably join them later. There is not much available cover however so that the number of ducks that undergo the mole here cannot be very large.

I saw very few signs of natural enemies and only occasionally were coyotes heard howling. It is probable however, that coyotes are more common than this would indicate, but that at this season they are found in the canyons bordering the mesa, as the Navajo herders complained of losses among their sheep. The forest all over the top of the plateau is entirely open and devoid of undergrowth of any kind so that there is little or no cover. Should food be abundant about the lakes, however, coyotes and other