MUSOPHAGIDAE 359 



bird with darker streaks and white under surface, may represent 

 this Central and South American group, of which the only other 

 members are two species of Dromococcyx. 



Sub-fam. 6. Crotophaginae. — Of these birds, peculiar to the 

 Xew World, Crotophaga ani, the Ani, Black Parrot, or Savannah- 

 blackbird, extending from the Southern United States and the 

 Antilles to most of South America, is glossy purplish- or greenish- 

 black, and has the smooth maxilla compressed into a thin vertical 

 plate, which, like the bare orbits, is black. Its grotesque appear- 

 ance and alleged malpractices have given it the name of Black 

 Witch in the West Indies. C. sulcirostris, ranging from Texas to 

 Peru, has the bill grooved ; C. major of South America is larger 

 and greener. Far from shifting the burden of incubation upon 

 other species, the females form huge co-operative nests of inter- 

 laced twigs lined with green leaves in trees, wherein each deposits 

 some five bluish eggs with a chalky incrustation, amounting in 

 all to twenty or more. Around or upon these structures they 

 sit in company. Bold but wary, the Anis flit from bush to bush, 

 or creep and jump about the branches, uttering a mewing sound 

 or a sharper double cry. They are often mobbed by other birds. 

 Flocks gather. in wooded or marshy spots, and feed on insects, 

 berries, lizards, and so forth ; occasionally digging for their prey, 

 or picking the ticks off cattle. 



Gtiira piririguu, of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina, is brown 

 and buff above with darker streaks, and buff below, the back and 

 tips of the lateral rectrices being white. From the similarity of 

 habits to CrotopJiaga it is termed the White Ani in Brazil, 

 Flocks draw near the houses in winter, and sit miserably huddled 

 together on the trees ; the note is a long disyllabic whistle, or in 

 the young an hysterical laugh. Usually each pair makes a rough 

 nest of twigs and leaves, laying six or seven pale blue eggs with 

 reticulated chalky coating ; though fourteen have been recorded. 



Fam. II. Musophagidae. — The Plantain-eaters are striking 

 birds, peculiar to the Ethiopian Eegion, without Madagascar. They 

 have large eyes and long necks ; while the bill, though small in 

 Gallirex, is generally stout and broad with compressed or rounded 

 culmen and serrated margin, and in Musophaga expands into a 

 broad frontal plate behind. The feet are semi-zygodactylous, 

 with reversible outer toe and strong claws ; the robust metatarsi 

 are scutellated anteriorly and coarsely granulated posteriorly. 



