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ANIS, ROAD-RUNNERS, AND CUCKOOS 
Fig. 256. Road-runner. 
thumb marks except on middle feathers; chest brownish white, streaked 
with black; throat and belly whitish. Length: 20-24, wing 0.50-7.00, 
tail 11.50-12.00. 
Distribution. — Breeds in Upper and Lower Sonoran zones, from Browns¬ 
ville, Texas, to San Diego, California, and from central California, Nevada, 
and Kansas, south across tablelands of Mexico. 
Nest. — Compactly built of sticks, lined variously with grass, manure 
chips, feathers, inner bark, mesquite pods, snakeskin, and roots ; placed 
in cacti, bushes, or low trees. Eggs: usually 4 to G, white or pale yel¬ 
lowish. 
Food. — Mice, snakes, lizards, crabs, snails, grasshoppers, centipeds, 
caterpillars, beetles, and cactus fruit. 
The road-runner is one of the most original and entertaining of 
western birds. The newcomer is amazed when the long-tailed crea¬ 
ture darts out of the brush and races the horses down the road, 
easily keeping ahead as they trot, and when tired turns out into 
the brush and throws liis tail over his back to stop himself. Even 
the oldest inhabitant likes to talk about the swift runner whom it 
takes a ‘ right peart cur to catch,’ and who eats horned toads, comes 
to drink and feed with the hens in the dooryard one day, and the 
next may be hunted vainly in the dense chaparral or cactus where it 
makes its home. They tell you how they have seen it mount the 
