THE OOLOGIST. 



265 



hibits remarkable sagacity in attracting 

 attention to herself and from the object 

 of her aft'ections, and feigns lameness 

 in limb and wing often leading the ob- 

 server to a hopeless pui-suit. 



I was reading an account some time 

 ago of a bird who removed the eggs 

 from her nest on being disturbed, re- 

 minds me of an instance where a fellow 

 collector found a nest containing three 

 eggs and wishing to secure the full set 

 of eggs decided to leave them for a day 

 or so. On returning a few days after 

 the eggs were gone, found by some 

 lucky collector so he supposed, but on 

 starting back again he had not gone 

 moi'e than fifteen feet when he again 

 flushed Mrs. Woodcock and secured the 

 full set. 



The eggs had been removed by the 

 old bird and placed in a uewly con- 

 structed nest. This is not always the 

 case with them. On one occasion I 

 found a nest of this bird containing 

 four eggs. I took one of the eggs and 

 on returning a few days after found the 

 bird still occupying the same nest. 



The eggs are four in number, gray, 

 speckled and spotted with dark brown; 

 the nest is found with great difficulty. 



The Road-runner. 

 Oeococcyx californianus, Less. 



This bird is best known as the Chap- 

 paralCock in this locality, getting that 

 name from the character of the country 

 which it inhabits. It is veintably a bird 

 of the Chapparal. 



In this and adjacent counties it is a 

 common resident but the ravages of the 

 pernicious "Sunday-hunter" are begin- 

 ning to tell perceptibly in its numbers. 

 They make excellent targets for persons 

 who go out hunting "just to see what I 

 can shoot." 



The Paisano, as it is sometimes called, 

 lives upon insects, snakes, eggs, young 

 birds and little chickens. The eggs and 



young of Mockingbirds, Sparrows and 

 other birds nesting near the ground, 

 and not having sufficient energy or 

 bravery to defend their homes, from 

 the main food supply of the Road-run- 

 ner during the breeding season. 



Little chicks are considered tender 

 morsels by these birds even though 

 they have to invade the very hen-house 

 to obtain them. Many a chick has met 

 an early death at the hands of an inno- 

 cent appearing Road-runner, and then 

 had its death credited to some roving 

 coyote or thieving Hawk by its sorrow- 

 ing owner, while the real culprit goes 

 unharmed, often unsuspected. 



A farmer told me not long ago that 

 he had shot one of these birds in the 

 very act of sucking eggs in his chicken- 

 house. 



Time and again I have been attracted 

 by the distressed cries of Mockingbirds 

 to where a Road-runner was robbing a 

 nest of eggs o:' young, only to arrive 

 and see him making off to the Chappar- 

 al, sometimes with one or more young 

 birds in his bill, — for this bird takes as 

 big a mouthful as he can get, you know. 



They have onlj^ two notes that I 

 know of, one a loud trill made by snap- 

 ping the manibles together several 

 times in quick succession, the other a 

 mournful coo-ah, accenting the first syl- 

 lable. The latter call I have heard on- 

 ly in the late winter and eai'ly spring. 

 Doubtless it is a mating call. 



The birds are not combative. I have 

 never seen them quarrel either among 

 themselves or with other birds, but on 

 the other hand I have often seen them 

 flee in terror before a pair of Scissor- 

 tail Flycatchers, still it is no disgrace 

 for them to run away from these little 

 spitfires, — even the lordlj' Red-tail does 

 that. 



When a Road-runner is surrouded by 

 a sci'eeching, chattering crowd of Mock- 

 ingbieds, Cardinals and Sparrows he 

 puts on an air of injured innocence and 

 sits looking calmly upon his little foes 



