126 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



with dull purplish-bronze, the shoulders and back and 

 smaller wing-coverts with a broad U-shaped submar- 

 ginal mark of dull greenish-bronze, the terminal margin 

 of each feather and a narrow border to the bronzy sub- 

 marginal mark, black; feathers of chest with similar but 

 narrower and less distinct markings ; bill, black or 

 brownish-black, often partly grayish-brown or horn 

 color; naked skin of loral and eye regions, dull black; 

 iris, dark brown ; legs and feet, black. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest: In tree, frequently orange 

 or lemon, or thorny bush; bulky, flat; constructed of 

 thorny twigs, sticks, lined with fibrous roots or green 

 leaves. Eggs : 3 to 5, milky blue. 



Distribution. — The whole of Mexico and Central 

 .'America, southward to Peru, Venezuela, and British 

 Guiana; north regularly (breeding) to Rio Grande 

 valley in Texas and Lower California, casually to 

 Louisiana, Florida, Kansas, and southern Arizona. 



The Groove-billed Ani is another of the border 

 birds which barely earns the right to be con- 

 sidered one of Uncle Sam's feathered wards, 

 by establishing a residence only in southern 

 Texas. According to Captain Bendire its 

 habitat is chiefly the lowlands, and the birds are 

 seldom seen at an altitude of more than 700 

 feet above the sea. Their apparent fondness tor 

 the company of cattle is due not only to the fact 

 that they feed upon insects started up by the 

 movements of the animals (which the disrepu- 

 table Cowbird also does), but to their feeding 

 upon parasites which they find on the animals' 

 skins, thereby doing the steers a service similar 

 to that performed by the famous Rhinoceros 

 Bird for its burly companion. 



This work the Anis do mainly at night 

 when the animals are lying down, though they 

 have been seen in daylight perched on the ani- 

 mals' backs, and one observer asserts that they 

 will cling to a cow's tail and clear it of insects 

 to its extremity. In flight, the Anis give the im- 

 pression of being very loose-jointed creatures, 

 their wings flopping clumsily and their tails blow- 

 ing about in the breezes as if insecurely attached. 



Judging from the living birds only, no one 

 would suspect that the Anis were related to the 

 Cuckoos ; their appearance and habits are very 

 different. The Anis are gregarious and live in 

 open districts. Even in their nesting they are 

 social birds, several females laying their eggs in 

 the same nest. 



ROAD-RUNNER 

 Geococcyx calif ornianus (Lesson) 



A. O. U. Number 385 



Other Names. — Ground Cuckoo; Chaparral Cock; 

 Snake Killer; Lizard Bird; Churca; Paisano ; Corre- 

 camio ; Cock of the Desert. 



General Description. — Length, 20 to 24 inches. 

 Color above, olive streaked with tawny-brown and 

 bufify-whitish ; below, whitish streaked on chest. Tail, 

 long and graduated; feathers of head bristle-tipped; 

 entire plumage, coarse and harsh. 



Color. — Feathers of forehead and anterior part of 

 crown, blue-black centrally, each with a broad lateral 

 spot of russet often edged with buffy-grayish. the rest 

 of crown (including bushy crest on the back of the 

 head), blue-black, broken by edgings of tawny-brown; 

 hindneck and upper back, blue-black, the feathers 

 broadly edged with light tawny-brown passing into dull 

 buffy-whitish on edges, producing a conspicuously 

 streaked effect ; feathers of lower back, shoulders, and 

 wing-coverts, similarly marked, but the central area of 

 each feather, olive glossed with bronze-greenish, and 

 edged with black, the paler markings on wing-coverts 

 larger and paler, in form of longitudinal spots ; greater 

 coverts, olive glossed with bronze, and with a large 

 terminal spot of white on each web; inner secondaries 



olivaceous, glossed with bronze-greenish edged narrowly 

 with black, and broadly margined (on both webs) by 

 dull whitish ; primary coverts, olive-dusky broadly mar- 

 gined at ends with dull white ; primaries, blackish, 

 faintly glossed with greenish, margined terminally with 

 dull white and crossed, near middle portion, by a broad 

 band of the same, composed of marginal spots on outer 

 webs only ; rump, plain grayish-brown ; upper tail- 

 coverts and middle pair of tail-feathers, bronzy-olive 

 glossed with purplish and margined with dull white; 

 remaining feathers, glossy blue-black on outer webs, 

 more greenish on inner webs, tipped, and narrowly 

 margined (on outer web) with white, decreasing in 

 extent to the second pair ; lores, dull whitish, the feathers 

 with projecting black bristle-like shafts; cheeks and 

 space below eyes, mixed dull whitish and pale tawny- 

 brownish, barred and spotted with black; sides of head, 

 streaked with black and dull whitish ; chin and throat, 

 mostly dull white; forencck, sides of neck and chest 

 light ochraceous-bufT passing into whitish on edges of 

 feathers, each feather with a center streak of black, 

 these streaks narrow in front, much broader on sides 

 of neck and chest; rest of under parts, plain grayish 



