Sutton, on Road-runner 
7 
eggs, but this may have been, and probably was, surmise, since 
I distinctly noted that I did not remove all the young birds 
from the nest, and I cannot say whether the eggs were actually 
there, covered by the bodies of the young birds, or had been 
destroyed by rolling out of the nest. What a sight this nestful 
of young birds was: smooth, and dark of skin, with long white 
hairs covering their bodies, and an indefinable reptilian look about 
them! Those of the lot that were hungriest tried to swallow 
finger; others merely looked up with that innocent, contented 
look which means that they have just been fed. The cry made 
by the young bird is rather loud and incessant, and reminds one 
of a vast throng of winged insects humming inside the bird. 
When next I visited this nest — about a week later — but two 
birds remained, and one of these I took home to raise. He 
proved an interesting and delightful pet. 
The second nest of these birds I found in a tangle near 
Howard’s Branch. This nest was about six feet up, and was 
much more neatly constructed than Nest 1. It has occurred 
to me that the first nest may have been an old one re-used, 
though I know of no well-established such case. The parent 
bird in the case of this nest was quite wary, and I rarely ever 
saw her. Once I discovered that she left the nest by one leap, 
without the unfolding of her wings, and sped away along the 
near-at-hand creek bottom. Once, and only once, I saw her 
creep stealthily back to the nest with a large striped race-runner 
lizard (Cnemidopliorus sexlineatus ) in her bill. I never saw 
the two parent birds together. Some accident, such as human 
interference possibly ruined this nest, with all its interesting 
prospects, and I saw no more of the birds as far as I know, though 
this same pair may have built nests found later. 
The next nest I discovered on April 27 in a dense, but closely 
confined tangle on the very banks of Howard’s branch, on the 
horizontal main trunk of a fallen, dead hackberry tree. This 
nest had five young birds, rather well along in development. 
These birds all left the nest without mishap; and it is re- 
markable that I never knowingly saw one of these young birds 
again through the season. Another new nest, which was unused, 
I found on a well-wooded, rather steep bank about a half mile 
further up the stream, and but a very short distance from the 
hole of a Burrowing Owl. 
I should have been scientific enough to have observed the 
actions of these birds about their nests that season by patient 
