Proceedings 41 
Runner. Inshapeand manner he reminds you of a pheasant, 
but his general colour is greyish or brownish, glossed with 
irridescent green. He is essentially a ground dweller and 
he runs with great agility and speed. For all his looks he is 
no relative of our game birds, but is in fact a Cuckoo, hav- 
ing two toes in front and two behind. In the course of my 
rides round Pasadena, Redlands and Santa Barbara, I must 
have seen a score of Road Runners but I never saw two 
together. The nest is a great mass of sticks placed in a bush 
or tree and the eggs seem to be laid at irregular intervals. 
In the more open fields, you meet with the Western 
Meadow Lark and the Mexican Horned Lark. The former 
is a sweet singer though the song is short, The bird is not 
really a lark but a starling. The yellow breast with its 
black crescent is decidedly handsome. 
California is a land of contraditions, where the Rats nest 
in trees and the Squirrels nest in the ground. In an old 
nest of a rat at a height of about 18ft. from the ground I 
found six eggs of the Long-eared Owl. 
Of birds of prey the most in evidence is the Turkey 
Buzzard. a small species of Vulture. These birds are often 
to be seen floating in the air in graceful circles, They help 
to thin out the ground squirrels whose holes are a source 
of danger to horsemen. Sometimes you find a hole big 
enough to break your horse’s leg burrowed in the very 
middle of the road, and the fields are often riddled with 
their holes, Other common birds of prey are the Desert 
Sparrow Hawk, the Western Red-tailed Hawk and the 
Marsh Hawk. 
The Golden Eagle I saw on the desert round Redlands; 
the Bald Eagle on the rocks at Catalina Island and the 
American Osprey at Mirror Lake in the Tosemite. 
The Burrowing Owl one saw occasionally sitting demure- 
_ ly on a rail or standing at the mouth of its burrow in a dry 
_ field by the roadside. 
’ Another bird,characteristic of the desert, where little grows 
but sage brush, yucca and cactus, is the Cactus Wren, a 
bird about the size of a Sparrow and with marks and streak- 
_ ings somewhat like those of a Wryneck. Its nest is placed 
