Long gone are the buffalo which once roamed the High Plains of eastern New Mexico. Exotic animals, imported and stocked along the rugged canyon of the Canadian River above Conchas Reservoir, are the Barbary sheep with their magnificent coiled horns. Beavers dam some of the mountain streams, badgers and skunks can be seen from the highways, and amid the forests are squirrels and porcupines, while high on rock slopes, the Rocky Mountain woodchuck and the gray rock cony dash from ledge to ledge. The white-tailed ptarmigan also haunts these high crags, and lower down the mountain, bluebirds nest. Hawks, eagles, magpies, jays, ravens, orioles, wrens, sparrows, warblers, finches, and many other birds of endless variety soar over canyon, forest, and sand-dune desert. Most notable of all is the crested roadrunner, the chapparal cock or paisano of Mexico and the state bird. In between racing with horsemen or automobiles, the slender roadrunner cocks his head, strikes swiftly and victoriously, then swallows his victim, which can be a small rattlesnake, whole. Snakes there are aplenty. Mostly, they are nonpoisonous, such as the garter snake, glass snake, puff adder, ring-necked snake, the coachwhip, the Mexican blacksnake, and the large western bullsnake. The small but very venomous coral snake is rare, but common among rocks and near streams are the large western diamondback rattlesnake, the prairie rattlers, and the less common green or blacktailed rattlesnake. Every sun-warmed rock has its scampering lizard, and nearby are horned toads, dry-land terrapins, tortoises, tarantulas, centipedes, vinegarroons, scorpions, and spiders. Of these latter desert animals, only the black widow spider is poisonous. Contrast in the influence of environments is shown by the animals that inhabit the “malpais,” the recent flows of black, rough-surfaced lava, compared with similar animals found among the white gypsum dunes of White Sands. Black or darkly colored subspecies of mice, plains wood rats, kangaroo rats, and rock squirrels live on the black lava, whereas white or pale counterparts of these animals live among the white gypsum dunes. [Illustration: Sketch of roadrunner, New Mexico state bird] The dwellers in the hills and plains of New Mexico are as varied as the hills and plains; they add their color and movement to the scenes of the Land of Enchantment. Rocks That Shape the Enchanting Landscape _by_ Frank E. Kottlowski “As old as the hills.” How much more ancient can anything be? Yet New Mexico’s hills, its enchanting landscapes, were built in but the most recent “minute” of geologic time. Merely one geologic era ago, marine waters covered the state, and storm-tossed waves ruled where now the hot sun beats down on dry sands and cacti a mile above sea level.