26 University of California Publications in Zoology [Vou. 17 
and May. A nest placed in a cholla cactus and containing four eggs 
was found by Kelsey (1903, p. 132) im Cholla Valley, San Diego 
County, Mareh 25, 1903, and Sharp (1907, p. 87) found eggs advanced 
in incubation as early as February at Escondido in the same county. 
Another nest containing three nearly full-fledged young was discoy- 
ered in a mesquite bush by Stephens (MS) at Salton, Imperial County, 
as early as April 17, 1909; and a nest containing three fresh eggs was 
found as late as July 16, 1904, by W. M. Pierce at Claremont, Los 
Angeles County (Willett, 1912, p. 54). The foregoing instances in- 
clude the earliest and latest nesting dates recorded for this state. 
Although the roadrunner is largely terrestrial, it seeks safety 
for eggs and young by placing its nest well above the ground. Some 
thorny shrub or cactus is usually selected and the nest is placed from 
three to ten feet above the ground (plates 1 and 2). Shepardson 
(1915, p. 159) records having found one nest at an elevation of 
twenty feet in a willow tree and another, in 1915, twelve feet above 
the ground in a pepper tree growing in a well-populated section of 
the city of Los Angeles. The nest itself is constructed of sticks loosely 
laid together. A slight lining of finer material is to be found, almost 
invariably composed of dry horse manure more or less broken up. A 
cast-off (molted) snake skin, and feathers are also frequent adjuncts. 
In approaching the nest the roadrunner usually ascends the cactus 
or other shrub in which the nest is placed, by hopping from limb to 
limb, seldom attempting to fly directly to the location. 
The eggs number from three to nine and are deposited at intervals 
of several days. Both male and female help during the incubation 
period, which lasts about eighteen days (Bendire, 1895, p. 17). Incu- 
bation is apparently begun when the first eggs are laid, for we have 
considerable evidence that fresh eggs, small young, and fledglings are 
found in the nest at the same time. Bendire (1878, p. 39) calls atten- 
tion to this habit in the following words: 
In 1872, while in southern Arizona, I found some twenty nests of Geococcyxr 
californianus, the first nest on April 8, the last on September 10. During the 
month of April, in which I found several nests, not one contained more than 
three eggs, although I allowed incubation to begin before taking the eggs, 
as I expected the birds to lay more. Nearly every nest I found after the 
middle of May contained four or five eggs, and I account for the greater 
number laid late in the season by the fact that insect food during the dry 
season, which includes April and May, is comparatively scaree. The birds 
being aware of this content themselves with rearing a small brood the first 
time, and a large one at the second laying, when the young are hatched about 
the beginning of the rainy season, which sets in in June. At this time all 
