Another animal frequently seen was the chaparral-cock or road-runner, really the earth cuckoo (_Geococcyx Mexicanus_), called paisano or pheasant, or Correcamino, by the Mexicans.

It is a curious creature, with a very long tail, and runs at a tremendous rate, seldom taking to flight.

Report says that it will build round a sleeping rattlesnake an impervious ring of cactus spines.

Its feathers are greatly valued by Indians as being "good medicine," and being as efficacious as the horseshoe is with us.
A still more curious animal, not often seen, was the well-named Gila monster or Escorpion (_Heloderma suspectum_), the only existing animal that fills the description of the Basilisk or Cockatrice of mediaeval times; not the _Basilicus Americanus_, which is an innocent herbivorous lizard.

This Gila monster is a comparatively small, but very hideous creature, in appearance like a lizard, very sluggish in its movements, and rightly owning the worst of reputations.