ANIS, ROAD-RUNNERS, AND CUCKOOS 
195 
granite boulders on the hills, and after strutting about with wings 
and tail hanging, put its bill down on the rock and pump out loud 
notes, which they interpret as love-calls for its mate in the brush 
below. Many marvelous yarns are spun over the pipes about the 
strange ways of this curious bird, especially about its deadly en¬ 
counters with rattlesnakes. 
The food of the road-runner may well make him of interest to 
his neighbors. In southern California, where the passion vine is 
used extensively for house decoration, it is infested by a pestiferous 
caterpillar, which he eats with great avidity. He also affects other 
pests. In the stomach of one bird, which we got in New Mexico, 
there were a large black cricket, a number of big grasshoppers, 
remains of a caterpillar and some beetles, a centiped six inches 
long, and a garter snake a foot long! Such an appetite surely de¬ 
serves well at the hands of its friends. 
GENUS COCCYZUS. 
General Characters. — Bill not longer than head, and gently curved for 
most of its length ; loral feathers and general plumage soft and blended ; 
tarsus naked, shorter than outer anterior toe and claw. 
KEY TO SPECIES. 
1. Bill with basal part of lower mandible yellow. 
2. Smaller, wing 5.61, with comparatively smaller and weaker hill. 
americanus, p. 195. 
2'. Larger, wing 5.84, with comparatively larger and stouter bill. 
occidentalis, p. 196. 
1'. Bill wholly black or bluish .... erythrophthalmus, p. 196. 
387. Coccyzus americanus (Linn.). Yellow-bibled Cuckoo. 
Adults. — Lower half of bill plain yellow ; under parts white or ashy ; 
upper parts plain grayish brown, 
faintly glossed with green; wings 
with inner webs rufous; tail 
graduated, all but middle feath¬ 
ers blue black, the outer ones 
tipped with broad white thumb 
marks. Young : tail feathers 
duller and markings less dis¬ 
tinct. Length: 11.00—12.70, 
wing 5.40—5.80, tail 6.00—6.15 ex¬ 
posed culmen .97-1.01, depth of 
bill at base .32-. 34. 
Remarks. — The smaller size 
and smaller and weaker bill dis¬ 
tinguish this species from the California cuckoo. 
Distribution. — Eastern temperate North America, breeding from Flor¬ 
ida north to New Brunswick, Canada, and Minnesota; west to South 
1 )akota, Nebraska, Indian Territory, and Texas ; wintering south to Costa 
Rica and the West Indies; casually to eastern Colorado, Wyoming, and 
North Dakota. 
From Biological Survey, U. S. Dept, of Agriculture. 
Fig. 257. 
