536 CUCULID. 
attention of the traveller by its solitary and peculiar habits, and often, too, in the 
mountainous regions and desert countries, where no other living creature is to be seen. 
Although met with in such localities, it is, however, not entirely confined to them, as 
it is an equal inhabitant of some portions of the thinly wooded parts of the terra 
caliente of the west, where the trees are scrubby and the country open, as the barren 
and rocky great central plains of Mexico. It seems to prefer a hilly country but 
scantily supplied with vegetation, where the numerous species of cacti form impene- 
trable thorny thickets. Here the Road-runner wanders in solitude, subsisting on 
grasshoppers, mice, lizards, &c. 
“It is most usually met with upon the ground, and as soon as it discovers the 
presence of danger, or the intruder, instantly runs off with remarkable fleetness to the 
nearest thicket or hill, where it generally escapes from its pursuers, either by concealment 
or a short flight from one hill to another. If a tree with low branches be convenient 
it will spring into that, and soon reaching the top will fly off to the distance of a 
hundred yards or more; it appears to rise from the level ground with much difficulty. 
It is very quick in its motions, active and vigilant; indeed its fleetness enables it to 
elude its pursuers, although one may be mounted on a good horse or a dog may be in 
the train; but this only for a short distance, as it would soon be run down by the horse 
or dog, were not some convenient thicket or hill near, from which to take its flight from 
the latter or conceal itself among the branches of the former.” 
Mr. Sennett, during one of his visits to Lomita, about sixty miles up the Rio Grande 
river of Texas, found a score of nests of this Cuckoo, some containing as many as eight 
or nine eggs. The nests were found in all sorts of places at heights varying from four 
to eight feet from the ground, and in various trees, a large prickly-pear cactus or a 
thick clump of thorny bushes being often chosen. The nests vary in size according to 
the position, sometimes being bulky, sometimes very fragile, but composed always of 
sticks with a lining of grasses, and having a depression about equal to the diameter of 
the egg. The eggs are laid with much irregularity, but mostly in April, though fresh 
eggs were obtained as late as the end of May. Their colour is opaque-white. 
2. Geococcyx affinis. 
Geococcyx affinis, Hartl. Rev. Zool. 1844, p. 215 '; Scl. P.Z.S. 1858, p. 305 *; 1859, pp. 868 *, 387': 
Scl. & Salv. Ibis, 1859, p. 134°; R. Owen, Ibis, 1861, p. 67°; Sumichrast, La Nat. v. p. 2397; 
Salv. Cat. Strickl. Coll. p. 442°; Boucard, P. Z. 8. 1883, p. 454°; Ferrari-Perez, Pr. U.S. 
Nat. Mus. ix. p. 162°; Stone, Pr. Ac. Phil. 1890, p. 205"; Shelley, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. 
xix. p. 421”. 
? Geococcyx mexicanus, Lawr. Ann. Lyc. N. Y. ix. p. 205"; Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. no. 4, p. 34%. 
G. californiano similis, sed minor, supra eneo-brunneus vix viridi tinctus, striis pallidis similibus sed angusti- 
oribus: subtus cervinus medialiter immaculatus, pectoris lateribus tantum nigro striatis; tectricibus 
subcaudalibus saturate brunneis; iride (ave vivo) brunnea, annulo aurantiaco, oculorum ambitu cretaceo- 
