326 Bird - Lore 



The manner of eating was \-ery peculiar and interesting. The bird would 

 flap its wings incessantly, open its mouth, lower its head, and come at me in 

 a manner which was truly alarming at first; but, as I grew more used to its 

 ways, it showed nothing but a rather spoiled character, for every time I came 

 near, the bird seemed hungry. One instance, especially, I remember. On May i, 

 in the middle of the night, my Road-runner came to me, although only a few 

 minutes before he had been asleep in a small locust which grew in its cage. 

 While it was young it never bothered the other tame birds and animals, 

 and it took quite a while for it to learn to pick up anything. As soon as it 

 did learn this, however, it was better than a dozen picture-shows to watch 

 it for a half-hour. It would spy a lizard and begin an amusing game of tag, — 

 which meant life or death to the lizard, but only a nibble to the bird. Very 

 rarely would it miss them, although at first it was difficult for it to keep 

 track of them. If by chance it did miss one, it looked so queer that it was posi- 

 tively ludicrous. When it had finished every lizard in the road, it commenced 

 on grasshoppers. From the first this bird ate the hopping ones, but it took 

 practice to capture the large flying ones. Upon seeing one, it would walk 

 sidewise up to the insect, and when it sprang into the air, the Road-runner 

 jumped into the air gracefully in front of it, and captured it on the way down. 

 The bird very seldom missed grasshoppers in this way, but it usually never 

 cared about them if it did. As my pet grew older, it began on snakes, — and 

 woe unto them! No one knows how many it had done up in a fine style. Noth- 

 ing in the animal line escaped it, — tarantulas, scorpions, mice, birds, snakes, 

 sow-bugs, beetles, horned frogs, lizards, rats, beef, and small chickens, 

 were all devoured whole. It made a special fuss over chickens and wasps. 

 This bird truly seemed intelligent beyond expression. Scorpions were always 

 attacked at their tails; so were wasps, while tarantulas and other things were 

 attacked at their heads. It was very particular to kill caterpillars, and it always 

 ate the legs off a tarantula before eating the rest of the body. I never knew a 

 more interesting creature, and, at this time, a half-hour walk with it is a con- 

 tinuous round of surprises. — George Miksch Sutton, nth grade (age 15), 

 Ft. Worth, Texas. 



[The foregoing history of a baby Road-runner is quite unique in the columns of this 

 Department, and the information given will be of value to all of our readers. Although 

 grouped with the Cuckoos, the Road-runner differs greatly in habit from other members 

 of its family. Our common Cuckoos lay few eggs, and make separate nests for their 

 young, but several Road-runners may use the same nest, which explains the large 

 number of eggs Master Sutton found. 



The food of the common Cuckoos, also, is chiefly insectivorous, and this group of 

 birds is perhaps as beneficial in its habits as any that could be named. The food of the 

 Road-runner, as described above and by other observers, is largely carnivorous, although 

 insects are no doubt included in its diet under normal conditions. 



We shall look forward to a continuation of this particular Road-runner's history 

 with interest.— A. H. W.] 



