The Road-runner 



by the bird from the summit of a live oak or from some other eminence. 

 It consists of a series of sepulchral, somewhat owl-like notes, uttered in a 

 swell, kwoke kwoke KWOKE KWOKE KWOKE kwoke kwoke. This, 

 too, is somewhat ventriloquial, as well as low and penetrating; but I am 

 positive of its source. A much more frequent, as well as endearing 

 sound, is the soft kook'-oooo of the evening hours. This note is so soft, so 

 tender, and so sweetly musical, that one immediately forms a new and 

 higher opinion of this gallant lover. Surely here is romance. All is, I 

 cannot certify that the sound actually does come from the Cuckoo and not 

 from the Ground Owl (Speotyto cunicularia hypogcea). The uncertainty 

 is shameful, but que voulez vous? One cannot pour salt on birds' tails in 

 the midnight watches. All I can say is that I have repeatedly heard these 

 amorous notes in country where I knew the Road-runner to be present, 

 but could not discover the owl. And I have fancied that the Cuckoo notes 

 were softer and a little 

 more prolonged than the 

 well-known madrigal of 

 Speotyto. Here is a mys- 

 tery and a challenge. 



We know that by 

 some such approved 

 methods the lady's heart 

 is won, and we are 

 pleased to add that the 

 promises made in the 

 springtime by Sir Geo 

 Coccyx are not lightly 

 broken. In nesting the 

 birds prove themselves 

 very adaptable. If in 

 the open desert, the low- 

 ly shelter of the cholla 

 cactus will suffice; but if 

 mesquite trees are avail- 

 able, the bird much pre- 

 fers the security of a 



horizontal limb or trunk. In the chaparral, the cover of the densest 

 shrubs is sought, or else the live oaks. I have found these birds nesting 

 also in the convenient crannies of the sandstone cliffs. In one such station 

 overlooking the Antelope Plains of western Kern County, the bird sat 

 with her tail bent forward sharply by the rear wall of her niche. When 

 disturbed, she did not fly directly, but scuttled nimbly along the face of 



SEEMED DIVIDE 

 IN HER MIND" 



"43 



