The Road-runner 
General Range. —Resident in Lower Sonoran and (locally) in Upper Sonoran 
life zones of the southwestern United States, north to upper Sacramento Valley in 
California; southern Utah, Colorado, and Kansas east to Gulf Coast and Texas, south 
through Lower California and over the central plateau of Mexico to Puebla. 
Distribution in California. — Resident in both arid and lightly timbered 
sections of the Sonoran life zone, north, east of the Sierras, to Big Pine in Owens Valley; 
west of the Sierras to the upper portion of the Sacramento Valley. Avoids the humid 
coastal strip, but has been found as far northwestward as San Geronimo (Marin 
County), and Sebastopol (Sonoma County). Not found on any of the islands. 
Authorities.—Lesson (Saurothera californiana), Compl. OEuvres Buffon, vol. vi., 
1829, p. 420 (Calif.); Bendire, Life Hist. N. Am. Birds, vol. ii., 1895, p. 13, pi. 1, fig. 2 
(egg )\ Grinnell, Condor, vol. ix., 1907, p. 51, map (Calif, range); H. C. Bryant, Univ. 
Calif. Pub. Zool., vol. xvii., 1916, p. 21, pis. (food and habits); Hunt, Condor, vol. xxii., 
1920, p. 186 (running speed). 
WE HAVE always contended that the Almighty has a sense of 
humor. Hence we point with pride to another of California’s native 
sons, curious, conscious, and contradictory, the ingenu and adept of the 
desert, quaintest of feathered creatures. But we will not be understood 
as holding our favorite up to ridicule. Droll the bird is, even comic on 
occasion; but the humor of the Creator has been kindly, and he has 
___ __ endowed this desert 
■A.tt- 
Taken in Kern County 
Photo by the Author 
A CASTLE IN THE COW COUNTRY 
THE NEST SHOWN IN THE NEXT ILLUSTRATION IS FOUND HERE 
masterpiece with en¬ 
dearing qualities, such 
as ought to assure him 
an enduring welcome. 
For, however grotesque 
the fowl may appear to 
be at first sight, I can 
assure the reader that 
he improves upon ac¬ 
quaintance; and as for 
myself, I confess toward 
the bird a good 
fellow feeling 
which is corn- 
compounded of 
laughter and 
tears. The 
Spaniards called 
him P ais an 0 , 
“the country¬ 
man,’’ and re¬ 
corded thereby 
