1916 | Bryant: Habits and Food of the Roadrunner 29 
A roadrunner makes an amusing and interesting pet and in early 
days in California this bird was often kept about the house and 
garden and was used as a destroyer of insects and mice. Some inter- 
esting accounts of these pets are to be found in literature. 
FOOD OF THE ROADRUNNER IN CALIFORNIA 
VEGETABLE Foop 
About 10 per cent, 9.93 per cent to be exact, of the food of the 
roadrunners examined was found to be made up of vegetable matter, 
wild fruit and seeds being most in evidence. Unlke many birds which 
turn their attention to vegetable food during the winter season, the 
roadrunner appears to discriminate as to the kind of seeds taken. 
The percentage volume of one particular kind of vegetable food was 
found to be over ten times as great as of all others. This favorite 
food is the fruit and seeds of the sour-berry (Rhus integrifolia), one 
of the common sumaes of the southern part of the state. Twenty- 
six birds, or 31.3 per cent of the stomachs examined, contained 
the seeds or fruit of this shrub, and 8.4 per cent of the food taken 
by all the birds was made up of this element. .The attention of the 
roadrunner 1s apparently attracted to this vegetable food only during 
the winter season, when insects, lizards, and other kinds of food are 
least abundant. 
No other fruit was found, and the only other seeds were atriplex 
(Atriplex sp.), 0.01 per cent; cactus (Opuntia sp.), 0.35 per cent; 
buckthorn (Rhamnus sp.), 0.01 per cent; and a few seeds of alfilaria 
(Erodium sp.). Indeed, so small a percentage of seeds other than 
the seeds of sumae and cactus were found that it may be that these 
small seeds were taken into the stomach along with other food and 
were not in reality chosen by the bird. The same can be said in regard 
to the small rootlets and grass sometimes found in the stomachs, which 
amounted to less than a tenth of 1 per cent. Attention has been called 
(Bendire, 1895, p. 14) to the faet that the roadrunner eats the fruit 
of cactus, but in the stomachs examined nothing but the seeds of the 
opuntia was found. 
Even though limited to desert and arid regions, a much wider 
variety of fruit and seeds is available than is taken, as has been 
shown by the results of stomach examination. The logical conclusion, 
therefore, is that a preference has been established, by southern Cali- 
fornia roadrunners at least, for the fruit and seeds of the sour-berry 
(Rhus integrifolia). 
