SMOOTH-BILLED ANI 19 



Order CUCULIFORMES 

 Family CUCULIDAE : Cuckoos, Roadrunners, and Anis 



CROTOPHAGA ANI Linnaeus 



SMOOTH-BILLED ANI 



HABITS 



This curious member of the cuckoo family is a tropical species of 

 rare, or perhaps only casual, occurrence within the limits of the 

 United States; a few may occur more or less regularly in southern 

 Florida or Louisiana, but to find it in abundance one must visit the 

 West Indies or South America. It has a variety of local names, such 

 as black ani, black witch, blackbird, savanna blackbird, and tickbird, 

 the last from its habit of eating the ticks that infest cattle. Charles 

 B. Taylor sent some interesting notes on this bird to W. E. D. Scott 

 (1892) ; regarding its haunts in Jamaica, he says: 



The Ani appears to be abundant in all parts of the island. It is one of the 

 commonest birds near Kingston ; and in most open and sparsely wooded lands, 

 or in the vicinity of cultivated clearings, little groups or companies may nearly 

 alv?ays be seen. Blackbirds are invariably present wherever cattle are pas- 

 tured. I cannot recollect an instance in which I have noted a herd of cows 

 at pasture without a flock of these birds appearing in company with them or 

 in their immediate vicinity. This association is doubtless chiefly for the purpose 

 of feeding on the ticks and other parasites on the animals, a good work largely 

 shared by the Grackles (Qulscalus crassirostris) . It is most interesting to watch 

 a company of Blackbirds when thus engaged. Many are perched on the backs 

 of the cattle (two or three sometimes on one cow), others are on the ground 

 hopping about fearlessly among the grazing herd, searching for insects at the 

 roots of the herbage or capturing those disturbed by the feet of the cattle. 



Nesting. — He says on this subject: 



Their nesting habits are exceedingly curious and interesting. Many individ- 

 uals (possibly members of one flock) work together in the construction of a 

 large nest in which all the females of the company lay their eggs. The number 

 of eggs deposited in different nests varies greatly but is of course dependent 

 on the number of birds in a company. Six and eight eggs are commonly found. 

 I once took eleven, and in August last year I saw a clutch of twenty-one that 

 had been taken from a single nest! It is probable that normally not more 

 than two eggs are deposited by each bird, but nothing definite can be said on 

 this point. The nest, which is usually placed high up in a tall tree, very fre- 

 quently in a clump of mistletoe on a "bastard cedar", is a large, loosely con- 

 structed mass of twigs, entirely lined with dried leaves. But the most remark- 

 able circumstance in connection with the nesting of these birds is the deposition 

 of the eggs in regular layers with leaves between. This custom I had long 

 heard of before an opportunity offered for personal observation. In the first 

 nest I examined, the eggs were in two distinct layers, separated by a deep bed 



