32 BULLETIN 17 6, UlS-ITED STATES KATTONAL MUSEUM 



"While this is doubtless true in certain parts of the ani's range, I 

 have watched them in the neighborhood of cattle from Panama to 

 Guatemala and only once in three years have I seen an ani alight 

 on a cow. Since the ani associates so much with cattle without alight- 

 ing upon them, and the giant cowbird, another black bird of approxi- 

 mately the same size, does frequently perch upon them and relieve 

 them of their vermin, it seems likely that the ani may be often 

 credited with the acts of the cowbird, especially since the latter is 

 shier and less known. I have occasionally questioned one who in- 

 formed me that the ani plucks ticks from the grazing animals, only 

 to find that he was unaware of the existence of the giant cowbird. At 

 a little distance such a person might easily suppose that the birds 

 upon the animal's back were the same as those about its feet, and 

 since his closer approach would leave only the latter, the illusion 

 would probably persist." 



He has also seen a group of anis excitedly following a battalion of 

 army ants, probably not to feed on such jSery morsels as the ants, but 

 to pick up "the cockroaches, spiders, and other small creatures driven 

 from their retreat among the dead leaves by the relentless hordes." 

 Again he says : "After the first heavy rain of the season has sent the 

 winged brood of the termites forth from their nests in countless 

 millions, one can watch the anis everywhere feeding like flycatchers, 

 making ungraceful darts, not exceeding a few feet, from low twigs 

 and fences; but the insects are so numerous on these occasions that 

 they can catch many without quitting their perches." 



Major Bendire (1895) quotes Dr. Richmond as saying: "The food 

 of those examined by me on banana plantations consisted almost 

 entirely of small grasshoppers, the stomachs being much distended 

 with these insects. From the fresh earth found on the bill and feet 

 of these birds, I should judge they also feed on the ground." 



Prof. A. L. Herrara, of the City of Mexico, wrote to Bendire that 

 "it is a social bird, being usually found in small companies of from 

 six to fifteen individuals, absolutely monogamous, sedentary, and of 

 semidomesticated habits, frequenting the haciendas and the fields and 

 pastures in their vicinity, and as it is considered very useful because 

 of its habit of destroying large numbers of parasites infesting the 

 cattle, it is not molested by the inhabitants, and becomes very tame. 

 It extracts the Ixodes and other Acaridans with remarkable skill, 

 without causing ulcerations which might result from the proboscis or 

 sucker remaining in the fibres of the skin, and it must be regarded as 

 one of the most useful birds of Mexico, especially in warm regions, 

 so abounding in parasites of all kinds." 



Behavior.— Dr. Richmond (Bendire, 1895) says: 



