536 CDCULIDiE. 



attention of the traveller by its solitary and peculiar habits, and often, too, in the 

 mountainous regions and desert countries, where no other living creature is to be seen. 

 Although met with in such localities, it is, however, not entirely confined to them, as 

 it is an equal inhabitant of some portions of the thinly wooded parts of the tierra 

 caliente of the west, where the trees are scrubby and the country open, as the barren 

 and rocky great central plains of Mexico. It seems to prefer a hilly country but 

 scantily supplied with vegetation, where the numerous species of cacti form impene- 

 trable thorny thickets. Here the Road-runner wanders in solitude, subsisting on 

 grasshoppers, mice, lizards, &c. 



" It is most usually met with upon the ground, and as soon as it discovers the 

 presence of danger, or the intruder, instantly runs off with remarkable fleetness to the 

 nearest thicket or hill, where it generally escapes from its pursuers, either by concealment 

 or a short flight from one hill to another. If a tree with low branches be convenient 

 it will spring into that, and soon reaching the top will fl.y off to the distance of a 

 hundred yards or more ; it appears to rise from the level ground with much difficulty. 

 It is very quick in its motions, active and vigilant ; indeed its fleetness enables it to 

 elude its pursuers, although one may be mounted on a good horse or a dog may be in 

 the train ; but this only for a short distance, as it would soon be run down by the horse 

 or dog, were not some convenient thicket or hill near, from which to take its flight from 

 the latter or conceal itself among the branches of the former." 



Mr. Sennett, during one of his visits to Lomita, about sixty miles up the Rio Grande 

 river of Texas, found a score of nests of this Cuckoo, some containing as many as eight 

 or nine eggs. The nests were found in all sorts of places at heights varying from four 

 to eight feet from the ground, and in various trees, a large prickly-pear cactus or a 

 thick clump of thorny bushes being often chosen. The nests vary in size according to 

 the position, sometimes being bulky, sometimes very fragile, but composed always of 

 sticks with a lining of grasses, and having a depression about equal to the diameter of 

 the egg. The eggs are laid with much irregularity, but mostly in April, though fresh 

 eggs were obtained as late as the end of May. Their colour is opaque-white. 



2. Geococcyx affinis. 



Geococcyx affinis, Hartl. Rev.'Zool. 1844, p. 215 ' ; Scl. P. Z. S. 1858, p. 305 '' ; 1859, pp. 368 ', 387* ■ 

 Scl. & Salv. Ibis, 1859, p. 134 = j H. Owen, Ibis, 1861, p. 67 "; Sumichrast, La iNat. v. p. 239 '• 

 Salv. Cat. Strickl. Coll. p. 442"; Boucard, P. Z. S. 1883, p. 454°; Ferrari-Perez, Pr. U. S. 

 Nat. Mus. ix. p. 162"; Stone, Pr. Ac. Phil. 1890, p. 205"; Shelley, Cat. Birds Brit. xMus. 

 xix. p. 421''. 



? Geococcyx mexicanus, Lawr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. ix. p. 205 " ; Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. no. 4, p. 34 '*. 



G. californiano similis, sed minor, supra seneo-brunneus vix viridi tinotus, striis pallidis similibus sed ano-usti- 

 oribus : sabtus cervinus medialiter immaculatus, pectoris lateribus tantutn nigro striatis ; tectri,cibus 

 subcaudalibus saturate brunneis; iride (ave vivo) brunnea, annulo aurantiaoo, oculorum ambitu cretaceo- 



