The Road-runner 



the wall, then sprang into the air for a long sail which ended in the sage. 



In no respect does Geococcyx betray its cuckoo affinities more clearly 

 than in the irregularity of its egg deposition. Eggs of a dull white or 

 dingy yellowish cast may be laid as frequently as every other day, but 

 usually depositions are three or four days apart; and since incubation 

 begins whenever the bird happens to feel like it, it is a commonplace to 

 find the entire gamut from fresh eggs to pin-feathered young exhibited in 

 a single nest. Four is a common number for a set, but I have seen seven, 

 and nine are of record. 



A glimpse of the home life of Geococcyx is permissible, and may be best 

 accomplished by the following record of a single nest. On the nth day of 

 June, 1915, my son William found a nest placed twelve feet up and near the 

 end of a branch in a thickly shaded portion of a live-oak tree in W. E. 

 Johnson's hillside pasture. When the parent bird flushed, she disclosed 

 three young, of which the youngest had just hatched, and one egg. I paid 

 the place a clandestine visit after sundown, and the old bird sat tight while 

 I broke twigs right beside her, and in other ways prepared the scene for 

 photography on the morrow. Arrived, then, on the morning of the I2th I 

 was pleased to find the mistress at home. She did not, however, sit to a 



Taken in 

 Riverside County 



Photo by the A ulhor 



NEST AND EGGS OF THE ROAD-RUNNER 



1144 



