ANIS, ROAD-RUNNERS, AND CUCKOOS 



195 



granite boulders on the hills, and after strutting about with wings 

 anil tail hanging, put its bill down on the rock and pump out loud 

 notes, which they interpret as love-calls for its mate in the brush 

 below. Many marvelous yarns are spun over the pipes about the 

 strange ways of this curious bird, especially about its deadly en- 

 counters with rattlesnakes. 



The food of the road-runner may well make him of interest to 

 his neighbors. In southern California, where the passion vine is 

 used extensively for house decoration, it is infested by a pestiferous 

 caterpillar, which he eats with great avidity. He also affects other 

 pests. In the stomach of one bird, which we got in New Mexico, 

 there were a large black cricket, a number of big grasshoppers, 

 remains of a caterpillar and some beetles, a centiped six inches 

 long, and a garter snake a foot long ! Such an appetite surely de- 

 serves well at the hands of its friends. 



GENUS COCCYZUS. 



General Characters. Bill not longer than head, and gently curved for 

 most of its length ; loral feathers and general plumage soft and blended ; 

 tarsus naked, shorter than outer anterior toe and claw. 



KEY TO SPECIES. 



1. Bill with basal part of lower mandible yellow. 



2. Smaller, wing 5.61. with comparatively smaller and weaker bill. 



americamis. p. 195. 

 2'. Larger, wing 5.S4, with comparatively larger and stouter bill. 



occideiitalis, p. 190. 

 1'. Bill wholly black or bluish .... erythrophthalmus, p. 196. 



387. Coccyzus americanus (Linn.). YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. 



Adults. Lower half of bill plain yellow ; under parts white or ashy : 

 upper parts plain gravish broAvn. 

 faintly glossed with green; wings 

 with inner webs rufous ; tail 

 graduated, all but middle feath- 

 ers blue black, the outer ones 

 tipped with broad white thumb 

 marks. Young : tail feathers 

 duller and markings less dis- 

 tinct. Length: 11.00-12.7<>. 

 wins- 5.40-5.80, tail 6.00-6.15 ex- 



posed culmen .97-1.01, depth of 

 bill at base .32-. 34. 



Remarks. - - The smaller size 

 and smaller and weaker bill dis- 

 tinguish this species from the California cuckoo. 



Distribution. Eastern temperate North America, breeding from Flor- 

 ida north to New Brunswick, Canada, and Minnesota ; west to South 

 Dakota. Nebraska. Indian Territory, and Texas ; wintering south to Costa 

 Rica and the West Indies: casually to eastern Colorado. Wyoming, and 

 North Dakota 



From Biol"-i<-al Survey, U. S. Dept of Agriculture. 

 Fig. '2.->7. 



