38 University of Califorma Publications in Zoology [ Vou. 17 
as food. A roadrunner kept at the State Game Farm at Hayward, 
California, greedily devoured young sparrows and dead downy 
pheasants. 
Inquiries as to the destruction of young quail or eggs by the 
roadrunner have elicited only the following information: Peter Lux, 
of Encinitas, San Diego County, California, writes that he and his 
brother saw a roadrunner catch and eat young quail at Olivenhain 
about June 1, 1903. Mr. Lux also states that since that time (about 
four years ago) he saw a young quail carried to a roadrunner’s nest 
and fed to the young. Mr. George Wood, of Hollywood, California, 
writes as follows: 
In the month of June, 1906, I was making a study of the cause of the 
death of so many young mockingbirds. I came on a nest containing two 
young roadrunners, about two weeks old, and just at the moment of finding 
the nest I also saw the male roadrunner with a young quail in its mouth. 
It saw me and ran away. I got back under cover and watched until it 
returned and I saw it take a young quail to the nest. J saw it return the 
second time and repeat the above. 
Mr. Leo Wiley of Palo Verde, Imperial County, recently told the 
writer in a conversation that during the first part of August, 1915, 
he saw a male roadrunner kill six Gambel quail which were about 
four days old. The roadrunner gave each one a single blow with its 
bill and, leaving the one just killed, attacked another. 
Throughout the Imperial Valley it is rumored that the roadrunner 
destroys hens’ eggs and young chicks. Mr. Walter E. Packard, in 
charge of the Imperial Valley Agricultural Experiment Station, 
writes: ‘‘T have heard a great many rumors to the effect that the 
roadrunner sucks eggs, but I do not know of any instance where the 
bird has been caught in the act or where it has been proven that 
this bird was guilty of such an act. Nor can I refer you to anyone 
who could give you information in this regard.’’ These accusations, 
therefore, apparently rest on circumstantial evidence. 
Such limited evidence as the above, unsupported as it is by the 
results of stomach examination, would go to show that the habit of 
destroying the eggs and young of birds is probably greatly exaggerated 
and that the eggs and young of birds are only incidentally taken by 
the roadrunner. Certainly the evidence at hand here in California 
does not justify the wholesale destruction of the roadrunner on the 
ground of its being an enemy of quail or other bird life. 
Mammals.—Judging from stomach examination, 3.38 per cent of 
