WESTERN BIRDS 



Order Coccyges: Cuckoos, etc. 

 GENUS GEOCOCCYX: ROAD-RUNNER. 



Suborder Cuculi : Cuckoos, etc. 



Road-Runner: Geococcyx Calif ornidnis. 



FAMILY— CUCULIDiE: CUCKOOS, ANIS, ETC. 



SUBFAMILY— NEOMORPHIN^ : 

 GROUND CUCKOOS. 



In the Road-runner, also called Ground Cuckoo, 

 Chaparral Cock, and Snake-killer, we have a unique 

 bird found in the arid, sandy regions of the west, which 

 is different enough from everything else to make the bird 

 student rejoice, for there is no mistaking it. 



It is found in California, north to the upper Sacra- 

 mento Valley, in Colorado, Kansas, and middle and 

 western Texas south through Lower California. 



The Road-runners are dwellers of the ground, running 

 with the swiftness of a horse, when they wish, and seldom 

 flying. They are nearly two feet long, the tail being 

 eleven or twelve inches in length, with the middle 

 feathers longest and the others graduated; wings short; 

 feathers of head bristle-tipped, plumage coarse; crown 

 crested, and a naked area around the eye bluish and 

 orange. The upper parts are lustrous bronzy, changing 

 to bluish-black on head and back, the whole conspicu- 



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