The first American naturalist who observed the bird now before the reader, was Dr. William Gambel, and a description by him will be found in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Vol. II., p. 263. (1845). Subsequently, it has been noticed by nearly all naturalists who have visited California, New Mexico, or Texas, and interesting contributions to its history are contained in their publications relating to the ornithology of those countries. Our esteemed friend, Col. George A. McCall, with his usual clearness and scientific accuracy, gave the first satisfactory account of this bird, in the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy, III. p. 234 (July, 1847.): “Although the toes of this bird are disposed in opposite pairs, as in other species of his family, yet the outer toe being reversible, and of great flexibility, is in either position aptly applied in climbing or perching, as well as on the ground. Thus he at times pitches along the ground in irregular but vigorous hops; and again, when the outer toe is thrown forward, he runs smoothly, and with such velocity, as to be able to elude a dog in the _chaparral_, without taking wing. He feeds on _coleoptera_, and almost every description of insects, and near the river Nueces, where the snail (_Lynnæus stagnalis_) abounds, it is also greedily eaten. These he snatches from the ground, or plucks from the low branch of a bush; and as he rarely wanders far from his abode, the prize is carried to a particular spot, where the shell is broken with his strong bill, and the animal devoured. Piles of these shells are often found that would fill half a hat crown. “Although dwelling principally on the ground, he is ready and expert in catching his prey in the air, in which act his movements are full of animation,—bounding from the ground with a sudden impulse to the height of eight or ten feet; his wings and tail are seen expanded for a scarcely appreciable instant, and his bill is heard to snap as he takes his prey, when he drops as suddenly to the spot from which he sprang. Here he will stand for a moment, his legs apart, and his tail flirted on one side with a wild and eccentric expression of exultation in his attitude, before he scampers off under cover of the thick _chaparral_. At first, I thought,—as is the general impression among the Mexicans,—that his powers of flight were extremely limited; but he will, when suddenly alarmed in open ground, rise with a light, quick motion, and continue his flight over the bushes for some hundred yards, apparently with an ease that would argue the ability to sustain a longer flight. “Though fond of solitude and shade, he will, at an early hour in the morning, climb to the top of a straight leafless branch, there to sit and enjoy the first rays of the sun.