‘ 
VI 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 
New 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 purplsh- 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. 
Guira piririgua, 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 Crotophaga 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 Region, 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 J/usophaga 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. 
