Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1886-02-25
THE R0ADRUNNER.
A SINGULAR LITTLE LEBIRDFOUND
IN THE SOUTHWEST.
It is Hardly Ever Still, and Runs In
stead Of Flying when Pursued
How it EntraDs the
RattIesnake.

A very singular and yet very little
known bird is the roadrunner chaparral
cock, or, as it is known in Mexico and
the Spanish sections Of the United States,
the paisano.
It belongs to the cuckoo family, but
has none Of the bad habits BY which the
European cuckoo is best known. It isa
shy bird, but is not by any means an un-
familiar object in the southwestern por-
tions of the United States and in Mexico.
Sometimes it wanders up into Middle
California, but not often, seeming to pre-
fer the more deserted, hotter and sander
parts Of Southern California and from
there stretching its habitat as far east as
Middle Texas.
It is not by any means brilliantly
colored bird, although some of its hues
are very beautiful The prevailing color
of the roadrunner is olive green, which is
marked with brown and white. Thetop
Of the head is black blue, and is furnished
with an erectile crest. The eyes are sur
rounded by line of bare skin.
It is not large bird, being seldom
twentyfour inches long, with tail tax
ing more than half of that length. The
tail, indeed, is the most striking feature
of the bird, being not only so very long,
but seemingly endowed with the gift of
perpetual motion, since it is never still,
but bobs up and down, and sidewise,
too, into every possible angle, and al
most incessantly.
But while its tail is most striking. its
legs are most remarkable, being not only
long and stout, but wonderfully muscu-
lar. How muscular nobody would be
able to imaginewho had not put them to
the test.
A traveller in Mexico tells Of going out
with his ranchero host to hunt hares with
brace Of very fine hounds. Going over
a long stretch Of sandy plain, relieved
only by pillars and clusters of cactus, the
Mexican called the attention of his guest
to an alert, comical-looking bird, some
distance from them.
With the remark that the gentleman
should see some rare coursing, the Mexi-
can slipped the leashes of the straining
hounds, which sprang off as if used to
the sport, and darted after the bird. For
amoment it seemed to the stranger a very
poor use to put the dogs to, but he was
not long in changing his mind.
Instead Of taking wing, the bird tilted
its long tail straight up into the air in
saucily defiant way, and started off on a
run in direct line ahead. 1t seemed an
incredible thing that the slender dogs,
with their space devouring bounds,
should not at once overtake the little bird:
but 50 it was. The legs Of the paisano
moved with marvellous rapidity, and en-
abled it to keep the hounds at their dis
tance for avery long time, being finally
overtaken only after one of the gamest
races ever witnessed by the visiting
sportsman.
The roadrunner, however, serves bet
ter purpose in life than being run down BY
hounds. Cassin mentions a most sineu-
lar circumstance among the peculiarities
of the bird. 1t seems to have a mortal
hatred of rattlesnakes, and no sooner sees
one cf those reptiles than it sets about in
what, to the snake, might well seem a
most diabolical way of comprising its
death. Finding the snake asleep. it at
once seeks out the spiniest of small cacti.
the prickly pear, and, with infinite pains
and quietness, carries the leaves, which
it breaks off, and puts them in circle
around the slumbering snake. When il
has made a sufficient wall about the OBJ
ject of all this care, it rouses its victim
with suddenpeck Of its sharp beak, and
then quickly retires to let the
snake work out its own destruction.
a thing it eventually does in a way that
ought to crafty the roadrunner if it have
any sense of humor. Any one watching
it would say it was expressing the live
lest emotion with its constantly and
grotesquely moving tail.
The first impulse and act Of the as
saulted snake is to coil for dart; its
next to move away. It quickly realizes
that it is hemmed in, in a circle, and
finally makes a rash attempt to glide
over the Instructions. The myriad Of
tiny needles prick it and drive it back.
The angry snake, with small wisdom.
attempts to retaliate BY fastening its
fangs into the offending cactus. The
/ spines fill its mouth.
Angrier still, it again and again as
saults the prickly wall, until, quite be-
side itself with rage, it seems to lose its
wits completely, and, writhing and
twisting horribly, buries its envenomed
fangs into its own body, dying finally
from its self-inhicted wounds After the
catastrophe, the roadrunner indulges in a
few gratifed fiirts Of its long tail and
goes of, perchance to find its reward in
being run down by hounds set on by
men. Scientific American