1916 | Bryant: Habits and Food of the Roadrunner 43 
STOMACH CAPACITY 
An average full stomach of a roadrunner contains about ten cubie 
centimeters of food. The maximum quantity found in a stomach 
was about forty cubic centimeters. This means that nearly two quarts 
of food are needed weekly if the stomach were filled to an average 
distension three times a day, and that a single bird probably consumes 
in a year something like one hundred quarts. The fact that single 
stomachs could contain over sixty ground beetles, sixty-three grass- 
hoppers, or thirty-six large cicadas makes it evident that, so far as 
the amount of food consumed is concerned, the roadrunner approaches 
front rank among the common land birds. At first thought such a 
capacity would seem to increase the ability of the bird to do good 
or harm. This is in a measure true, but the much smaller number 
of individuals of this species compared with certain gregarious species 
of birds makes it possible that certain birds with much smaller stomach 
capacity, because of the greater number of individuals, may consume 
even more. The stomach capacity of the individual roadrunner is 
great, but that of the total roadrunner population is relatively small. 
Variety in the diet, as well as typical elements of the food, is well 
illustrated by the following tabulation of the stomach contents of a 
single roadrunner taken at Lemon Grove, San Diego County, January 
2k, UGH} e 
VEGETABLE, 3% 
2 seeds (Rhus integrifolia) 2 grass-blades 
1 seed with stem (Hrodium sp.) 
ANIMAL, 97% 
6 beetles (Amara insignis) 1 bug (Huschistus conspersus) 
1 beetle (Hleodes acuticauda) 8 bugs (? Anasa sp.) 
5 beetles (Microschatia inaequalis) 1 scorpion (Anuroctonus phaiodac- 
5 beetles (Centrocleonus pilosus) _tylus) 
8 wireworms (Elateridae) 1 spider egg-case 
12 grasshoppers (Melanoplus sp.) 1 lizard (Uta stansburiana) 
1 Jerusalem ericket (Stenopelmatus 
sp.) 
ECONOMIC STATUS 
The investigation of the stomach contents of eighty-three road- 
runners taken in southern California revealed but little evidence that 
the roadrunner is injurious to man’s interests. The following, all of 
minor importance, form the most important evidence against the bird: 
Parts of an Anthony towhee found in one stomach; a very young 
