234 [July, 1847. 



a single day while hunting over large extents. Their haunts 

 were in the neighborhood of running streams or very large ponds 

 of clear water here four or five might be found scattered over 

 some 20 or 50 acres; thus showing little sociability even on their 

 feeding grounds. But most frequently he is found alone, perched 

 near the water, or with rapid wing shaping his solitary course 

 across the extensive waste. His flight is extremely bold, as he 

 pitches in wide irregular zig-zags through the air, with a velocity 

 scarcely to be surpassed. The meat for delicacy of flavour is not 

 excelled by any of the family. 



Geococcyx viaticus, Wagler. 



(For a description of this bird, see Proceedings of the Academy, 

 vol. 2, No. 10.) 



The G. viaticus, which the Mexicans familiarly call Paisano. 

 (countryman,) is found in Texas, from the River Nueces to the 

 Rio Grande, and in Mexico, from the seaboard at least to the 

 Sierre Hadre ; and being an inhabitant of the chaparral, or thorny 

 thicket, he rarely ventures far beyond its borders. Although the 

 toes of this bird are disposed in opposite pairs as in other species 

 of his family, yet the outer hind toe being reverseable and of great 

 flexibility, is in either position aptly applied in climbing or perch- 

 ing, as well as on the ground. Thus he at times pitches along 

 the ground in irregular but vigorous hops, and again when the 

 outer toe is thrown forward, he runs smoothly, and with such 

 velocity as always to be able to elude a dog in the chaparral, with- 

 out taking wing. He feeds on coleoptera, and almost every 

 species of insects. And near the Nueces where the snail (Lym- 

 nceus stagnalis) abounds, it is also greedily eaten. These he 

 snatches from the ground or plucks from the low branch of a 

 bush, and as he rarely wanders far from his abode, the prize is 

 carried to a particular spot, where the shell is broken with his 

 strong bill and the animal devoured. Piles of these shells are 

 often found that would half fill a hat crown. 



Although dwelling principally on the ground, he is ready and 

 expert in catching his prey in the air, in which act his movements 

 are full of animation bounding from the ground with a sudden 

 impulse to the height of 8 or 10 feet, his wings and tail are seen 

 expanded for a scarcely appreciable instant, and his bill is heard 

 to snap as he takes his prey, when he drops as suddenly to the 

 spot from which he sprang. Here he will stand for a moment, 

 bis legs apart, and his tail flirted on one side with a wild and ec- 

 centric expression of exultation in his attitude, before he scampers 

 under corer of the thick chaparral. At first I thought as is the 

 general impression among the Mexicans that his powers of flight 

 were extremely limited; but he will, when suddenly alarmed in 



