ROADRUNNER 43 



I entertained misgivings concerning tliese flat stones. What savage creatures 

 might not they conceal? Could young Road-Runners manage swift-tailed 

 scorpions, sharp-toothed mice, or poisonous spiders? Under the first stone there 

 were scorpions. The Road-Runners hesitated an instant, as if permitting an 

 untried instinct to talie possession of their brains, then rushed forward, thrust 

 out their heads, and attacked the scorpions precisely at their tails. Perhaps 

 these venomous tails received more than the usual number of benumbing blows, 

 but the scorpions were swallowed with gusto. 



I had not supposed that a Road-Runner would capture and devour a taran- 

 tula. One day, however, we paused at the tunnel of one of these big, furred 

 spiders. Somewhat in the spirit of experimentation, and following the method 

 known to all Texas boys, I teased the black Arachnid from her lair by twirling 

 a wisp of grass in her face. She popped out viciously and jumped a good ten 

 inches to one side. With a dash one bird was upon the monster before she had 

 opportunity to leap a second time. A toss of the bird's head and one of 

 the eight legs was gone. Free again, the spider leaped upon her captor. The 

 other bird now entered the combat, snatched up the spider, and flicked off 

 another leg. One by one the legs went down, and finally the two birds pulled 

 apart and gulped the sable torso. 



Plumages. — The newly hatched roadrunner's only plumage is 

 coarse, long, white or whitish hairs. These do not by any means 

 cover the dark-skinned body, but they apparently give the bird all 

 the protection it needs. At this stage the light-colored 2gg tooth is 

 noticeable, the feet are dark colored like the rest of the body, the 

 mouth lining has a peculiarly blotched appearance, and the irides 

 are dull brown. 



As blood quills replace the long white hairs, the Q:gg tooth dis- 

 appears, the legs and feet turn blue-gray, the skin about and back of 

 the eye lightens, and the blotching of the mouth lining becomes less 

 conspicuous. The sprouting feathers now bear at their tips the white 

 hairs of babyhood. Some of these hairs cling to the plimiage long 

 after the bird leaves the nest. 



When young roadrunners begin to capture their own food they 

 wear a plumage that is much like that of the adult. J. A. Allen 

 (Scott, 1886) describes this plumage thus: "The chief difference in 

 color consists in the broad shaft stripes of the feathers of the neck 

 and breast being less sharply defined in the young than in the 

 adult, and in the brown edgings bordering the shaft stripes being 

 paler." 



At this stage the bare skin about the eye becomes pale blue, and 

 the naked patch back of the eye light orange. Too, the eye itself 

 changes, a light-colored ring, which contrasts sharply with the brown 

 or gray-brown of the rest of the iris, forming about the pupil. As 

 the bird becomes older the bare skin of the face brightens. Fully 

 adult males, at the height of the nesting season, are fairly resplend- 

 ent with their high, steel-blue crest, brilliant eye, and bright orange 

 patch back of the eye. 



