The Road Runner - 



Strange Beasts of the Border 



by Oren Arnold . . . paintings by C. H. Roberts 



ON A golf course near Fort Worth an Easterner socked his ball 

 'down the fairway. "Look!" he cried then, "There's a big 

 bird after it! Pecking it along, trying to swallow it!" 



It was true. It has happened many times on golf courses in 

 the Mexican border states. The bird was paisano meaning 

 "fellow citizen" in Spanish but better known as the Road 

 Runner or Chaparral Cock. A member of the cuckoo family, 

 he is distinguished for his long bill, longer legs, and ludicrously 

 long tail. He is the comedian of the desert. He will pop out 

 of the brush and challenge your car to a race and win until 

 you pass his clocked speed of forty m.p.h. He is agin flying, 

 although he can take off for a hundred feet or so if need be. 

 Surveyors, dragging their bright chains, will find paisano run- 

 ning along pecking at the links. If they stop, he will stop and 

 glare, waiting for the fun to resume. 



His coat is a speckled patchwork of many colors, making him 

 resemble a skinny guinea. His voice is an "oo-oo" at mating time 

 and a "cook-cook" chatter when he is around human beings. 

 He eats lizards and snakes, even including large rattlers, which 

 he is able to attack and kill. You can find him with a reptile half 

 swallowed, the tail dangling for hours; as the front end digests, 

 more is swallowed. He also may bedevil the larger snakes, mak- 

 ing them strike repeatedly until exhausted, but always nimbly 

 hopping out of danger. 



Because of his popularity, strict moral law protects paisano. 

 New Mexico has made him its state bird. Paisano is but one of 



62 The Horned Toad - 



