12 
PICARIAN BIRDS. 
genera, for the iris is red, and it has a bare space round the eye of a blue colour, 
fading off into white behind, and then followed by a patch of orange-red. The 
length of the bird is about two feet. The road-runner is an inhabitant of the 
o 
Southern United States, from Texas to New Mexico, Southern Colorado, and 
California. It has obtained its name of the “ road-runner ” from the speed with 
which it flies over the ground, some idea of which may be gained from a state¬ 
ment of Colonel Stevenson, that when in Southern California he saw on two 
occasions the ranchmen of that part of the country chase one of these birds on 
horseback for a distance of a mile or more at full speed, when the cuckoo, though 
still in advance, would suddenly stop and fly up among the upper-limbs of some 
stunted tree or bush near the roadside, and the rider having kept the bird in view 
all the way would dismount and easily take the exhausted bird from its perch alive, 
savana and The last subfamily of the cuckoos is represented by the so-called 
Guira Cuckoos. sa vana and guira cuckoos, three of which belong to one genus, while 
the fourth constitutes a genus apart. Distinguished from all other cuckoos by 
having only eight tail-feathers, these birds are further remarkable for their eggs. 
Externally these eggs are blue, covered with chalky white scratches, produced by 
contact with the lining of the nest; and it appears that this blue colour belongs only 
to the outer covering, so that when this is removed the true egg-shell, which is 
white, is revealed. The guira cuckoo {Guira) has a very slender beak, and a crest; 
the plumage being brown streaked with black, the under surface buff, and the 
back white; while the length of the bird is about 18 inches. It inhabits Brazil 
and Paraguay. The members of the other genus are black, and have an 
extraordinary bill with a kind of high and narrow keel on the upper mandible, 
looking as if it had a ridge along it. Of the three species, the largest is Crotophaga 
major, which is 18 inches in length, and is found from Brazil and Amazonia to 
Guiana, and also extends to Colombia. The other species, C. anis and C. sulcirostris, 
are smaller, not exceeding 13 inches in length; the anis inhabiting much the 
same areas as its larger relative, but being found also in the West Indian islands, 
while it has occurred in the Southern United States. It has a smooth bill, while 
the latter has several grooves on the side of the bill. It likewise occurs in the 
Southern United States, and extends throughout Central America to Colombia and 
Peru, but does not seem to reach Brazil and the other countries of South America. 
The savana cuckoos are gregarious birds, and it will be seen from the notes 
given below that they also nest in company. Sehor Alfaro says that in Costa 
Rica he found the zopilotillo, as it is called, very abundant in the fields near 
Tambor, a little town about twenty miles north-west of San Jose, where along the 
hedgerows and in the scrubby timber they find their insect food, as well as on 
the hides of the cattle. The wood-ticks or ‘ garrapatos,’ which are found on the 
legs and about the head and neck of the cattle, are esteemed above all else a 
favourite morsel. The bird is also called the tijo-tijo in imitation of its peculiar 
notes, which seem to repeat the word tee-lio over and over again. He likewise 
tells of the finding of three nests, one of which was situated in the branches of a 
mango-tree, and contained fourteen eggs. Noticing on one occasion one of these 
birds building its nest, he returned in a week’s time, and found, to his surprise, not 
only the nest completed but containing six eggs, while in the thorns and leaves 
