268 CHAPTERS ON THE NATURAL HISTORY 



has an easy and swift flight, while on the ground it can for a 

 short distance run and outstrip the fleetest of horses. It has a 

 peculiar call-note, and feeds principally upon insects, lizards, 

 snakes, young birds, etc. Snakes nearly two feet long have been 

 killed and swallowed by them. The stories about the remark- 

 able way in which they pen in rattlesnakes with cactus joints, 

 and then stir up the reptile by dropping a joint on him, which 

 causes it to thrash round till exhausted and is finally killed by 

 the cunning Road-runner, are — to use a fitting phrase — all gam- 

 mon. It is a cowboy yarn, and paralleled by numbers of others 

 equally mythical, told to comers from the east, in times now 

 nearly past forever. 



Still more remarkable among our CuculkUe are the curious 

 cuckoos called Anis; also known in various localities as Black 

 Witches, Savanna Blackbirds, and other names. Two species of 

 these birds are recognized as belonging to our fauna — the Ani 

 (Grotophaga ani) and the Groove-billed ani (G. sulcirostris). 

 They are small black forms, each species about a foot long, with 

 the upper bill elevated and much compressed laterally. G. ani 

 has been taken in southern Florida and Louisiana, while the 

 other species occurs in the valley of the Rio Grande, Texas, and 

 in Lower California. These are arboreal, gregarious birds of 

 very social disposition. They not only perch close together upon 

 the trees, but a number of individuals build a nest together, and 

 in this several females lay their eggs, to the number of six or 

 eight. Of these Bendire says they " are glaucous-blue in color, 

 and this is overlaid and hidden by a thin, chalky, white deposit; as 

 incubation advances the eggs become more or less scratched, and 

 the blue underneath is then plainly visible in places, giving them 

 a very peculiar appearance." The nest is placed well up in some 

 tree, and is composed of twigs and lined with leaves. Some- 

 times the eggs are placed in layers with leaves between them, 

 but the eggs of the lower layer have been found to be infertile. 

 Anis are awkward birds both in flight and when in the trees, or 

 upon the ground; they also have a peculiar wail of a cry like a 

 sick kitten; and they also attend upon pasturing cattle after the 

 fashion of our Cowbirds (Molothrus). They feed upon small 

 lizards and eggs of other birds. ■ In fact, the Anis are among the 

 most curious and interesting of any of the cuculine forms known 

 to me, and, some years ago, I studied with especial interest some 

 skeletons of these birds sent me from southern Texas. 



