24 University of California Publications in Zoology [ Vou. 17 
apparatus and information which has been of great help. He has 
also critically read the manuseript and offered suggestions. 
LIFE-HISTORY AND HABITS 
Although most birds are found to possess at least some interesting 
characteristics, there are very few which have so many outstanding 
peculiarities as has the roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus). Four 
marked characteristics distinguish this bird. First, although classified 
with the cuckoos, it has no close relatives, other than the slightly 
different Mexican roadrunner (Geococcyx affinis), living in North 
America at the present time; second, it is probably the fastest endur- 
ance runner among California birds; third, it has peculiar nesting 
habits; and fourth, its diet is most extraordinary. 
No better proof of the fact that the roadrunner has long excited 
keen interest among people can be offered than that numerous stories 
have grown up which attribute more than ordinary intelligence to 
this bird. The commonest story, and one often implicitly believed, 
is to the effect that the roadrunner has an ingenious method of killmg 
a rattlesnake, a feat which it takes every opportunity to perform. This 
myth has even crept into scientific writings (Heermann, 1859, p. 61; 
Orcutt, 1886, p. 49; Van Dyke, 1897, pp. 36-88; Cooper, 1870, p. 
369). The following version has been put on record by the orni- 
thologist Walter E. Bryant (1891, p. 60): 
It is said that when the roadrunner finds a rattlesnake coiled and asleep, 
it corrals him or builds a fence around him of the cactus burrs with their innumer- 
able sharp spines. After completing the corral it then commences to tease and 
worry the snake by darting at and pecking it with its stout bill. The snake 
in endeavoring to extricate himself from his thorny enclosure finds himself 
pricked on every side by the sharp spines of the cactus, and tantalized by the 
bird becomes infuriated, bites himself, and dies. 
Furthermore, the many local names of the roadrunner show it 
to be a well-known bird wherever found. In addition to the name 
‘‘roadrunner’’, which is probably a translation of the Spanish name 
correo del camino, it is variously called chaparral cock, ground cuckoo, 
paisano (Spanish for ‘‘countryman’’), lizard bird, and snake bird. 
Practically all of these names emphasize some peculiar characteristic 
of this bird. 
So unusual is the general appearance of the roadrunner that field 
marks are readily employed as a means of identification. The legs 
are long and powerful; the tail is as long as the body and rounded 
