36 University of California Publications in Zoology [ Vou. 17 
had been taken. They were of the following species: Uta (Uta 
stansburiana), blue-bellied lizard (Sceloporus biseriatus), and Blain- 
ville horned toad (Phrynosoma blainvillet blainvillei). None of the 
birds examined had eaten more than one lizard. 
The following additional evidence that the roadrunner in Cali- 
fornia feeds upon lizards is at hand: On July 9, 1894, near Pasadena 
a roadrunner was secured, the stomach of which contained four full- 
sized whip-tailed lizards (Grinnell, 1907, p. 85). C. H. Richardson 
(MS) secured a roadrunner at Mecca, Riverside County, March 22, 
1910, which contained, besides grasshoppers and beetles, a horned toad, 
presumably of the desert species (Phrynosoma platyrhinos). The 
stomach of a roadrunner taken at Needles, California, February 15, 
1910, contained one weevil, remains of other beetles, and a half-grown 
lizard (Cnemidophorus), the latter digested to the bare skeleton 
(Grinnell, MS). 
Finley and Finley (1915, p. 164) found that a roadrunner in 
Arizona which they had under observation fed its young almost en- 
tirely upon lizards. They write: 
While we were crouching at the peephole of the blind the mother came, 
carrying a big lizard, grasped firmly in her bill (plate 3). Up the bark 
she scratched and thrust the lizard, head down, into the mouth of the 
youngster. The tail hung out of its bill for a long time, but something 
had hold of it down below, and finally it all disappeared. Soon she came with 
another lizard, and presently another youngster was sitting propped stiffly 
with a tail hanging out of its mouth. Again came a lizard—and again—and 
again—there was no use counting. The larder was full of lizards and nothing 
else! 
Mr. Leo Wiley of Palo Verde, Imperial County, reports that he 
has seen roadrunners carrying whip-tailed lizards and utas about, 
although he has never actually seen the birds eat them. All evidence 
points to the fact that the whip-tailed lizard (Cnemidophorus) is the 
lizard most often eaten. Whether the abundance of this species is 
responsible for this fact or whether a preference is indicated is not 
apparent. 
Very little attempt to break a lizard to pieces seems to be made 
by the roadrunner. Instead, the reptile is usually swallowed whole 
head first, after being hammered to death on some hard object nearby. 
How the bird which had eaten the Blainville horned toad mentioned 
above could have swallowed this reptile, which was fully an inch 
wide, even when compressed, I am not able to say. But it appears 
