The Road-runner 



its plumage. Those immediately over the bird's eye are especially sturdy, 

 and there can be no doubt of their defensive purpose. As for the Road- 

 runner's legs, they are a marvel of speed and endurance, though a horse or 

 a dog may tire them out. The footprints, two toes forward and two to the 

 rear, are among the most characteristic sights of the desert; but we may 

 not suppose that this double-toed arrangement makes for especial effi- 

 ciency upon the ground. Indeed, it is altogether probable that this bird, 

 whose ancestors were, and whose cousins are, strictly arboreal, is in so far 

 handicapped. The hinder toes are weak; and, surely, three toes in front 

 would give a better traction. 



But in all this we are failing to give a tenth part of the witchery and 

 grotesque appeal which are bound up in this wraith of the desert. The 

 Spanish vaqueros felt it and left a hundred tales, now chiefly legendary, of 

 the bird's cleverness and bent for mischief. The best and oldest tale, the 

 classic of the range, I heard myself from a bandy-legged cowboy. It runs 

 as follows: 



When a Road-runner discovers a rattlesnake, asleep, he quietly 

 fetches joints of cholla cactus until he has a perfect circle, or fence, built 

 around his snakeship. Then he leaps into the circle, and out again after 

 a sharp peck, which wakes the snake and starts the fight. Another nip 

 and the battle is on in earnest. The enraged rattler tries to get at the 

 bird, and as often as he starts over the dead-line, recoils from the prick of 



Taken in the Mohave Desert 



YOUNG ROAD-RUNNERS 



Photo by Pierce 



the merciless thorns. Finally, in a fury of impotence, the snake bites 

 himself, and yields his carcass to the exultant bird. My informant had 

 seen this done repeatedly, and left the impression that rattlers, as a con- 

 sequence, were very "skurce in these parts." 



1141 



