22 BULLETIN 17 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



still Juvenal ; from this I infer that the juvenal plumage may be worn 

 for the whole of the first year, Maynarcl (1896) took some birds that 

 had just completed molting on March 8; also some that had just 

 begun to molt on April 24. I have seen young birds molting into 

 adult plumage in December. 

 Food. — P. H. Gosse (1847) says of the food of the ani in Jamaica: 



The food of our Blackbird, though consisting mainly of insects, is not confined 

 to them. We usually find the stomach distended with caterpillars, moths, 

 grasshoppers, beetles, and other insects, to such a degree that we wonder how 

 the mass could have been forced in. But I have found these contents mixed up 

 with, and stained by the berries of the snake-withe; and in July I have found 

 the stomach crammed with the berries of the fiddle-wood, {Cytharaxylon) which 

 had stained the whole inner surface a bright crimson. Flocks of these birds 

 were at that time feeding on the glowing clusters profusely ripe upon the trees. 

 Stationary insects are the staple food ; to obtain which, they hop about grassy 

 places, and are often seen to jump, or to run eagerly at their prey ; on which 

 occasions the long tail, continuing the given motion after the body has stopped, 

 is thrown forward in an odd manner, sometimes nearly turning the bird head 

 over heels. * * * 



One day I noticed a cow lying down, around which were four or five Black- 

 birds, hopping on or off her neck, and eagerly picking the insects from her 

 body ; which service seemed in no wise unpleasing to her. I have also seen 

 them leaping up on cows when grazing; and, on another occasion, jumping to 

 and from a horse's back ; and my lad Sam has repeatedly observed them clinging 

 to a cow's tail, and picking insects from it, as far down as the terminal 

 tuft. * * * 



But stationary insects are not the only prey of the Crotophaga ; in December, 

 1 have seen little groups of them engaged in the evenings, leaping up from the 

 pasture about a yard into the air, doubtless after flying insects, which they 

 seemed to catch. * * * i have seen one with a dragon-fly in its beak, which 

 it had just caught, but it may have been while resting. At another time I saw 

 that a Blackbird had actually made prey of one of our little nimble lizards 

 (Anolis). 



Maynard (1896) says that "anis live largely on locusts, especially 

 a large species, which is quite common on the Bahamas, and which has 

 a peculiar, rather disagreeable odor, which is imparted to the birds." 

 W. E. Clyde Todd (1916) says that, on the Isle of Pines, "it is fond 

 of following in the wake of brush-fires, picking up the roasted lizards, 

 snails, and insects." Dr. Wetmore (1916) reports that the stomachs 

 of 41 birds from Puerto Rico contained 91.3 percent animal matter, 

 mostly harmful insects and arachnids, including mole crickets, other 

 crickets, locusts, sugar-cane root-borers, leaf beetles, other beetles, 

 squashbugs, other bugs, caterpillars, and spiders ; the other 8.7 percent 

 was vegetable matter, mostly seeds and fruits of 7 species of wild 

 plants. He also says elsewhere (1927) : "On May 20 near Yauco three 

 anis were seen in a tree in which several mazambiques had nests. The 

 anis were very near these nests, and the blackbirds, together with a pair 

 of gray kingbirds, were much excited, but appeared to be unable to 



