36 BULLETIN 17 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



loose, but withal rather neat structure, formed outwardly of dead 

 twigs and very substantially lined with cottonwood and willow 

 leaves, which look as if they must have been dry Avhen gathered. 

 * * * This nest measures about six inches across the top, and the 

 cavity is nearly an inch in depth. * * * Mr. Frazar met with 

 the Groove-billed Ani only at San Jose del Cabo, where a flock of 

 about thirty frequented some thick brush about pools of water near 

 the mouth of the river." 



Eggs. — The eggs of this race are apparently just like those of the 

 species elsewhere. The measurements of 9 eggs average 31.99 by 

 24.00 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 33.5 

 by 23, 31.8 by 24.9, and 30.5 by 23 millimeters. 



GEOCOCCYX CALIFORNIANUS (Lesson) 



ROADRUNNER 



Plates 3-6 



HABITS 



Contributed by George Miksch Sutton 



Most ornithologists are to some extent acquainted with the road- 

 runner. They have read about him. They have heard strange 

 stories about him. Perhaps, driving along some road in the South- 

 western United States, they have even seen him. But he who really 

 knows the roadrunner has risen morning after morning with the 

 desert sun; thrilled at the brilliance of the desert stars; seen day 

 turned to sudden night by the dust-storm ; pulled cactus spines from 

 his shins. He who knows the roadrunner, he who has measured 

 the breadth and the depth of this unique bird personality, has lived 

 with him — ^not for an hour or so, not for a day, but week after week 

 after week. 



First impressions almost invariably give us an inadequate concept 

 of this strange bird. We hear him scuttle through dry leaves ahead 

 of us, catch a glimpse of him as he slips back of a rock, know 

 from the flight of a grasshopper that he has gone a certain way, and 

 that is all. Or, coming upon him suddenly, we surprise him into 

 flight ; note his short, rounded wings, long tail, and coarsely streaked 

 plumage ; watch him sail down the arroyo ; and marvel that with the 

 shutting of his wings and reckless plunge into the thicket he is so 

 instantly lost to view. 



Sometimes, traveling in a motorcar, we come upon him perched on 

 a fence post or telegraph pole close to the highway. Now we have 

 opportunity to observe how slim he is, how long his legs, how notice- 

 able his crest. But as we pass he leaps to the gi-ound, swings off 



