SAN LUCAS ANI 35 



1891, and there is also a somewhat indefinite record of its occurrence 

 in the early part of January in the vicinity of Kingston, Jamaica. 



Egg dates. — Central America: 4 records. May 27 to July 29. 



Baja California: 6 records, April 1 to September 3. 



Mexico: 40 records, March 20 to August 14; 20 records, May 16 

 to June 30, indicating the height of the season. 



Texas : 7 records, March 17 to July 15. 



CROTOPHAGA SULCIROSTRIS PALLIDULA Bangs and Penard 

 SAN LUCAS ANI 



HABITS 



The groove-billed ani of the Cape region of Lower California, 

 Mexico, was described and given the above name by Bangs and 

 Penard (1921), based on a series of 18 specimens from San Jose del 

 Cabo. It is said to be — 



similar to Crotopliaga sulcirostris sulcirosf7-is Swainson of Mexico, and of about 

 the same size, but much paler and with less purplish iridescence ; the U-shaped 

 iridescent markings of the back and breast paler and duller greenish, not so 

 brilliant; the dull purplish bronze of the head and neck of true sulcirostris re- 

 placed by paler, more grayish bronze ; the lustreless parts of the body-feathers 

 grayish brownish black instead of dull black. * * * 



Eighteen adults of this new form, laid out beside a series of nearly double 

 that number from various points in Mexico and Central America, are strikingly 

 different; the pale, dull colors of the Lower California bird cannot be matched 

 by any specimen in our series of true sulcirostris. The difference is noticeable at 

 a glance but rather difficult to describe. Brewster (1902), in his account of 

 the birds of the Cape Region of Lower California, states that the Groove-billed 

 Ani is not known to occur in central and northern Lower California, and that 

 the colonies which have become established in the Cape region were probably 

 originated by birds which came from western Mexico. However this may be, 

 the isolated colony of Cape St. Lucas has developed into a very distinct form, 

 worthy of recognition. 



Griffing Bancroft writes to me, on August 6, 1937, that he is "as 

 nearly satisfied as it is possible to be from negative evidence" that 

 this form of the groove-billed ani is extinct. 



Nesting. — Lyman Belding (1883) writes: "The 1st of April I dis- 

 covered four of these birds in a marsh, in which was a rank growth 

 of tide., flags, and reeds. Having shot one of them, and the others 

 were not molested, they remained in the marsh until May 15, or later. 

 A nest found April 29 contained eight eggs. It was fastened to up- 

 right reeds, and was composed of coarse weed stalks and mesquite 

 twigs, lined with green leaves. The female, while incubating, was 

 very wary, slipping quietly away from the nest and returning to it 

 very stealthily, below the tops of the reeds." 



William Brewster (1902) says that the nest "taken by Mr. Frazar 

 was in a willow about twenty feet above the ground. It is a flat- 



