216 A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO. 



stumbled on a skeleton and feathers of one of the 

 family. 



In one of the trees we came to an enormous 

 nest made of the unusual materials that are 

 sometimes chosen by that strange bird, the road- 

 runner. It was an exciting discovery, for that 

 was before the road-runner had come to the ranch- 

 house, and I had been pursuing phantom runners 

 over the hills in the vain attempt to learn some- 

 thing about them ; while here, it seemed, one had 

 been living under my very vine and fig-tree ! To 

 make sure about the nest, I spoke to my neigh- 

 bor ranchman, and he told me that when he had 

 been milking during the spring he had often seen 

 the birds come out of the blue gums, and had 

 also seen them perching there on the trees. How 

 exasperating ! If I had only come earlier ! Now 

 they had gone, and my chance of a nest study 

 was lost. 



But my doll was not stuffed with sawdust, for 

 all of that. There was still much to enjoy, for a 

 mourning dove flew from her nest of twigs almost 

 over Billy's head, and it made me quite happy to 

 know that the gentle bird was brooding her eggs 

 in my woods. Then it was delightful to see a 

 lazuli bunting ^n her nest down another aisle. 

 It seemed odd, for there was her little cousin 

 nesting out in the weeds in the bright sun, while 

 she was raising her brood in the shady forest. 

 The two nests were as unlike as the sites. The 



