314 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
In the Rio Grande Valley near MesiUa Park, Professor Merrill found 
the birds most numerous among the mesquites on the sand dunes 
and in tornillo bosques. They are resident and nest both early in 
the spring and as late as August, tornillo bushes being favorite places 
for their large stick nests. When trying to decoy a man away from the 
nest one of these original birds has been seen to simulate, not as is 
conventional a broken wing, but a broken leg! 
In the mountains around Mesilla Park the Road-runners are found 
from the foothills up onto the rocky canyon walls, from which Profes¬ 
sor Merrill saw one give what he terms “the most perfect example of 
volplaning that one could see. “From a cliff a half a hundred feet 
high,” he writes, “it pitched off with head, wings, and tail outstretched 
and glided down a canyon an eighth of a mile in the most gentle and 
graceful undulations imaginable, never flapping a wing once, not 
even when it alighted upon a rock, when it closed its wings, raised its 
head, and looked around with great unconcern” (MS). 
Additional Literature.—Anthony, A. W., Auk, XIV, 217,1S97 (eating passion 
vine caterpillar).—B ailer F. M., Bird-Lore, XXIV, 260-265, 1922.— Bryant, 
H. C., University of California PubL in Zoology, Vol. 17, No. 5, 21-58, 1916 (habits 
and food).— Finley, W. L., and Irene, Bird-Lore, XVII, 159-165, 1915; National 
Geographic Magazine, XLIV, 167, 186, 187, 201, 1923,-Pemberton, J. R, Condor 
XVIII, 203, 1916 (decoy).— Sutton, G. M., Bird-Lore, XVII, 57-61, 1915; Wilson 
™ IV > 3 - 20 > 1922,-Torrey, Bradford, Nature’s Invitation, 163-166, 
zS5, 1904. 
OWLS: Order Strigiformes 
In the Owls the sexes are alike, there is a facial disk with a rim 
out ining the face, and soft lax plumage which gives noiseless flight. 
Reference.—Averill, C. K, Condor, XXIX, 
1927 (emargination of primaries). 
BARN OWLS: Family Tytonidae 
The heart-shaped form of the facial disc 
has given the Barn Owls the descriptive local 
name of Monkey Owls. The head is without 
external ear-tufts, but the ears are very large. 
The legs are long, closely feathered, the 
feathers becoming thin and bristly on the toes; 
two toes turn forward, two back, the inner 
toe is as long as the middle toe, the middle 
daw is serrate on its inner edge, suggesting the 
pectinations of the goatsuckers. The wings 
shm-t f„-i 1 ., are very lon S’ folding beyond the end of the 
pecu i.rt I'Srf arc the lon SPSt; the plumage is of 
peculiarly delicate, downy texture; the sexes are alike. 
I'rom Biological Survey 
Fig. 50. Barn Owl 
