Meet Chickee My Road-runner

MEET CHICKEE, MY ROADRUNNER BY E. R. TINKHAM, Ph. D.

CHICKEE came to me in an interesting, but unnatural way. One day while engaged in a White-winged dove survey on the mesas at the west base of the Tucson Mountains, I came upon a road-runner's nest built in the protection of a fierce clump of cholla needles at about five feet above the ground. Upon my approach there was a peculiar sound as five youngsters in unison suddenly jerked back into the depths of the nest. There was nothing to be seen but large bills sticking straight up into the air like Sandhills Cranes sentinelling the crest of a prairie hill.

I looked around for some large stones and after some minutes' exertion in the blazing sun succeeded in building a photographer's platform. After taking a photograph or two of the nest I decided to look at one of the young birds. I reached forth my hand when plop over the edge of the nest like dead weights dropped four young roadrunners. For a moment roadrunners seemed to be everywhere as I gave chase. The eldest cleared out of the vicinity on fast-moving legs and I soon decided I had plenty to do to catch even the youngest. After some minutes of diving under Ironwoods and Palo Verde and chasing around chollas, not without much puffing and perspiration, I succeeded in capturing one of the younger birds and had my eye on another when Mrs. Roadrunner very much alarmed, came running into the nesting area with a large whip-tailed lizard dangling in her bill. After my wild chase I came to the conclusion that if I were to tame a roadrunner my best chances would be with one of the younger, and as I had captured the second youngest I decided to retain it. The youngest bird was in the nest, too young to leave. I took a hurried departure with my prize and left the mother bird to call her family back to the nest.

The youngster in my hands was a cute little fellow, not much larger than a chick with wings only two inches long and a mere start of a tail. His legs were bare to his belly, which had only two feathered tracts, one on either side. The biggest part about him was his bill. His crown of short feathers was continually raised in a frown, as he was in a constant state of excitement. Every now and then he would snap his bill and his short litle tail would flick up in a vertical position.

As the hot summer days of August passed one by one, the roadrunner grew larger and tamer. No longer was his crown raised in a continual frown but when excited he would raise the fast-growing feathers into a crest now half an inch long. His wings were much longer too, and his tail was lengthening fast. During those days he was always talking to himself a slight audible cluck, and so one day I decided to call him "Chickee."

His diet consisted of long strips of meat. At first I had to forcefeed him, but he soon learned to eat on his own accord. On occasions, when traveling, I stopped to pick up lizards and small snakes recently killed in the road. It was interesting to observe his first reaction. Not having seen a lizard since baby days in his nest one would wonder whether he knew what it was. I had no sooner tossed the dead lizard in front of him than it was going down his throat. He became so fond of lizards and snakes that he spurned meat unless very hungry.

At night when I was in town his favorite perch was on a piece of copper-bearing rock in front of a row of small books on the book shelf. There he would perch all night long and he was comfortable as long as his tail was pressed against some object. The thigmotropic (Continued on Page Fifty-one)