CUCDLID.E — THE CUCKOOS— GEOCOCCYX. 



369 



fence in the cemetery, close to the town, where they sat still while several 

 wagons i^assed by. 



Wliere not molested, tliey liccome quite tame, and seem to liave a prefer- 

 ence for the vicinity of to\\-ns and liouses. At Santa Barbara I observed a 



young one nearly fledged in May. I have seen several nests, but never 

 discovered one with young or eggs in it. The nest is luiilt in a low thicket, 

 composed mostly of sticks, rather loosely put together, and ^■ery shallow. 

 The eggs are two, larger tlian a pigeon's egg, wliite, and nearly equal in size 

 at each end ; size, 1.65 X 1.22. 



The food of this liird consists of insects, lizards, and snakes, probaldy also 

 of any small or young animal it can destroy. It is said to hedge in the 

 rattlesnake with a circle of cactus-joints, until the reptile, becoming en- 

 raged, bites itself and falls an easy prey to the bird. This I have never 

 seen, nor can I understand how such a hard-slicllcd reptile could be en- 

 closed by even a spiny hedge so as to be unable to escape. It is, howe\'er, 

 i;ndoubtedly true that the bird kills these, and other snakes also. Its fieet- 

 ness on foot, when in an o[)en plain, is well known, a fast horse being 

 scarcely able to overtake it. On such occasions it never flies, unless down- 

 wards from a height, and its wings seem scarcely ever of much use to it, 

 as it probably cannot fly upwards at all. 



Mr. H. E. Dresser, in an article pulilished in the London Ibis, (1865, 466.) 

 speaks of it as abundant in the niez(piite region of Texas, especially near the 

 Pdo Grande. He found its eggs near San Antonio as late as September, laid 

 usually in a clumsy nest of niezquite twigs, and from two to four in nunilicr, 



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