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 tlie 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 fheir bodies, and an indefinable reptilian look about 
them ! Those of the lot that were hungriest tried to swalloAv my 
finger; others merely looked up with that innocent, contented 
look which means that they have just been fed. The cry made 
b}^ the young bird is rather loud and incessaut, 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 jN^est 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 sewlmeatus) in lier bill. I never saAV 
the two parent birds together. 8onie accident, such as human 
interference possibly ruined this nest, Avith 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 Avell along in development. 
These birds all left the nest Avithout 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 Avell-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 
