This characteristic Cuckoo is usually called Road-runner and Chaparral Cock, but 

 it is also known as the "Snake-killer," "Ground Cuckoo," "Lizard Bird," while the 

 Mexicans call it the "Paisano" and "Correcamico." 



SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Saurothera californica Less. (1829). Geococcyx Yariegata Wagler (1831). Lepto- 

 stoma longicauda Swains. (1837). Geococcyx mexicanus Gambel (1849). GEOCOCCYX CALIFOR- 

 NIANUS Baird (1858). 



DESCRIPTION: "Tail very long; the lateral feathers much shorter. An erectile crest on the head. A bare 

 skin around and behind the eye. Legs very long and stout. All the feathers of the upper parts and 

 wings of a dull metallic olivaceous-green, broadly edged with white near the end. There is, however, 

 a tinge of black in the green along the line of white, which itself is suffused with brown. On the neck 

 the black preponderates. The sides and under-surfaces of the neck have the white feathers streaked 

 centrally with black, next to which is a brownish suffusion, The remaining under-parts are whitish, 

 immaculate. Primary quills tipped with white, and with a median band across the outer webs. Cen- 

 tral tail-feathers olive-brown; the others clear dark green, all edged and (except the central two) 

 broadly tipped with white. Top of the head, dark blackish-blue. 



"Length 20.00 to 23.00 inches; wing, about 6.50; tail, 12.00 to 13.00 inches." (B.B.&R.II,p.472.) 



YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. 



Coccyzus americanus BoNAPART:e. 



Plate XXXIII. Fig. 4. 



>CARCELY any other bird of my boyhood days aroused my curiosity more than 

 the Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Though its very peculiar and characteristic notes 

 w^ere familiar to my ear, the bird itself remained for a long while a mystery to me. 

 Often I saw it gliding swiftly and noiselessly through the thickets, but this was only for 

 a moment, giving me no chance to see it plainly. As its notes w^ere uttered most clearly 

 and most frequently just before a warm summer rain, this Cuckoo was known among 

 the country people as the Rain-bird or Rain Crow. 



In a large meadow in the lowlands of our farm there was an area of about two 

 acres entirely covered with dense thickets, which had been designated by my grandfather 

 as an asylum for the small birds. After the grass had been mown, this meadow was 

 used as a pasture for the cows, who found among the dense thickets during the hottest 

 part of the day a shady and cool retreat. In May and June the whole meadow was 

 alive with frolicking and singing Bobolinks. Meadowlarks were also numerous and 

 Goldfinches nested preferably in the ash saplings. Consisting mostly of different species 

 of willows, and also a few small elms, ash saplings, elder, dogwood and viburnum 

 bushes, these thickets really formed a favorite abode for many birds. On the border 

 many a bush and small tree was overgrown with grape-vines and virgin's bower 

 {Clematis virginiana) , but more in the interior many of the willows had attained the 

 size of small trees. Nowhere else have I found the Catbirds so abundant. At least seven 

 pairs were nesting each year in the tangled bushes on the border of this domain. The 

 Thrasher was also present, and Cedarbirds were still more numerous than the Catbirds. 



