A True Story About the Panamint Springs Roadrunner

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Posted by moraine on April 24, 2004 at 00:26:47:

This happened on a hot day at Panamint Springs b.J. (before Jerry). It was when the first foreign tourists discovered the joys of air conditioning in Death Valley and all the deep-desert innkeepers were making nervous experiments with staying open all summer. A gratifying little crowd of Europeans was lunching in the dining room when someone spotted a wayward robin prospecting the grass under the pepper tree. Although it didn't look much like its continental namesake, everyone hurried to the windows to see. A scattering of "oohs", "ahs" and happy sighs was heard. At that moment, the local roadrunner leaped up, snatched the robin, beat it to death on the rock wall, paused to give the horrified audience a long insolent beady look, and ran off with its limp lunch in its beak.

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