Road-runner 449 



life, and short, rather weak wings, in which the secondaries are as long as the 

 primaries. One of the best-known members of the group is the Road-runner, 

 Chaparral Cock, or Snake-killer (Geococcyx calif ornianus), of northern Mexico 

 and the adjacent portions of the United States. Nearly or quite two feet in 

 length, it has the plumage "conspicuously striped with dull whitish or buffy 

 and bronzed brown, the latter glossed with green," while the naked skin about 

 the eye is brightly colored blue, white, and red or orange in life. The 

 Road-runner is a rather unsocial bird, usually seen singly, or at the breeding 

 season in pairs or family parties, and frequents especially desert tracts adjacent 

 to river valleys and the lower foot-hills, where there is a more or less dense cover- 

 ing of cactus, yuccas, and thorny undergrowth, through which it runs with 

 astonishing swiftness. When walking about at ease the long tail is somewhat 

 elevated and the neck drawn in; but when alarmed the feathers are pressed 

 closely to the body and it makes off, trusting almost entirely to its legs for escape ; 

 but when pressed too hard it may take to wing, flying for a short distance with 

 comparative ease and swiftness. It feeds on grasshoppers, beetles, snails, 

 lizards, small snakes, the smaller rodents, and young birds, and in season the 

 fig-like fruits of the giant cactus. The rattlesnake is a well-known denison of 

 its haunts, and there is an engaging fable to the effect that when a Road-runner 

 discovers one of these reptiles coiled up asleep it proceeds at once to hedge it in 

 by a ring of spiny cactus, on completing which it drops a piece on the snake, 

 which has the effect of rudely awakening him, when he dashes about in his efforts 

 to escape, filling his body with the sharp spines, and ultimately falls a victim 

 to the bird. Major Bendire, whose opportunities of observing the life history 

 of this bird were very extensive, doubts the truth of this story, and has certainly 

 never witnessed it. The nesting season usually begins in late March or April, 

 and the nest is ordinarily placed in low bushes, mesquite trees, cactus bushes, 

 or sometimes the abandoned nest of some other bird. When made by them- 

 selves, it is, according to Bendire, a rather flat and shallow, but compactly built, 

 structure of sticks and lined with finer material, such as dry grass, soft tree bark, 

 weeds, bits of snakeskin, etc. The eggs, pure white in color, range from four 

 to nine or even as many as twelve, in the latter case possibly the product of 

 two birds. "The parents are devoted to their young, and when incubation is 

 well advanced the bird will sometimes allow itself to be caught on the nest rather 

 than abandon the eggs. The nestlings, when disturbed, make a clicking noise 

 with their bills. When taken young, they are readily tamed, soon becoming 

 attached to their captor, showing a great deal of sagacity and making amusing 

 and interesting pets." - BENDIRE. 



The only other species in the genus is the Mexican Road-runner (G. ajfinis), 

 a smaller bird ranging from Guatemala to Yucatan and Vera Cruz. 



Anis, or Savanna Cuckoos. Passing over the several small Central and 

 South American subfamilies, the members of which present nothing of particu- 

 lar interest, we come to the final subfamily (Crotophagince), also American, which 

 is distinguished at once by the tail of only eight feathers. Although this group 

 numbers but two genera and four species, they are all birds of much interest, and 



