230 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



and these lines frequently figure in present-day boundary disputes. 

 The parrot-hunters keep taking the young birds at every opportunity, 

 and make a practice of removing the eggs or young of distant nests to 

 nests of other pairs which chance to be nearer their own homes, so as 

 to keep rival hunters from eventually securing them. Three or four 

 eggs constitute the usual complement, but often a pair of birds is 

 compelled to rear twice as many young for the sole benefit of the parrot- 

 hunters. The nests are invariably built in an old woodpecker's hole 

 in a bottle-palm, usually only fifteen or twenty feet from the ground, 

 and the eggs are pure white. Mr. Link's first nest was found early in 

 April, and on April 15 a set of three eggs was secured. Mr. Read 

 records a nest still containing young as late as June 27. Parrots are 

 fairly common throughout the drier parts of the island (except in the 

 mountains), affecting the groves of pine and bottle-palms (PI. XXIII, 

 fig. 3). They feed on the cones and tender shoots of the pines, as 

 well as on the seeds of the royal palm, and it is said that they also 

 damage the cultivated grape-fruit, on which account they are con- 

 sidered a nuisance, and many are shot. Except in the nesting-season, 

 they are found in large flocks, and are at all times very noisy and un- 

 suspicious. The bulk of the individuals seem to disappear in Septem- 

 ber, however, and only a few odd birds are to be seen until the latter 

 part of January. The natives say that during this interim they retire 

 to the " south coast," like the pigeons, but this statement could not be 

 confirmed. 



77. Crotophaga ani Linnaeus. Ani. 



Crotophaga ani Poey, Mem. Hist. Nat. Cuba, 1854, 427 (Nueva Gerona, fide 

 Gundlach). — Cory, Cat. W. Indian Birds, 1892, 102 (I. of Pines, in geog. distr.). 

 — Bangs & Zappey, Am. Nat., XXXIX, 1905, 200 (Cayo Bonito, Santa Fe, 

 and Jucaro; habits). — Read, Oologist, XXVI, 1909, 102 (I. of Pines; habits); 

 XXVIII, 1911, 12 (I. of Pines).— Read, Bird-Lore, XIII, 1911, 44 (McKinley) ; 

 XV, 1913, 45, and XVI, 1914, 50 (Santa Barbara). 



"Black Parrot" Read, Oologist, XXVI, 1909, 58 (I. of Pines), 102 (crit.). 



"Ani" Read, Forest and Stream, LXXIII, 1909, 452 (I. of Pines). — Read, Oologist, 

 XXVI, 1909, 223 (I. of Pines); XXVII, 1910, 5. and XXVIII, 1911. 6, 10 

 (Nuevas River), 3 (McKinley), 113 (West McKinley); XXX, 1913, 123 (Mc- 

 Kinley and Nuevas River), 125 (Santa Barbara), 130 (I. of Pines), 168 (Los 

 Indios). 



Thirteen specimens: Nueva Gerona and Los Indios. 

 These are precisely like specimens from other West Indian localities. 

 There is one bird in juvenal dress, dated June 29. 



