i8 DENIZENS OF THE DESERT 



ness to an animal is produced in large part by the 

 long down-hanging tail and the full exposure of 

 the numerous soft down-like barbs at the bases 

 of the feathers which in their flufhness look like 

 thick fur. Of all times this is the best to see 

 a road-runner at close range. Purposely now 

 he seems to ignore your presence. Unwilling 

 that you should disturb him in his seeking of 

 comforts, he permits you to approach until you 

 can see the white ring of his eye. Several times 

 I have at such times quietly crept up on one 

 and watched him for ten minutes at a time 

 preening his feathers, running his bill through 

 them and gaping and stretching his long black 

 jaws. 



There are three things in which the road- 

 runner's poverty is great — his sense of smell, 

 his power of flight, his power of song. The sense 

 of smell in all birds is so vestigial that at best 

 they can probably smell no better than you 

 can when you have a cold in the head. Even 

 vultures, we are told, must depend wholly on 

 their sense of sight for the detection of carrion 

 and in no degree on their sense of smell as might 

 be thought. 



