SAVANNA BLACKBIED. 
191 
Jamaica : it is met with most abundantly in places occupied 
by horses or cattle^ from the bodies of which it is fond of 
picking the parasitic insects : it is chiefly on insects that it 
feeds, and, from the vast numbers which it catches, the bird 
must prove very useful in reducing them, Mr. G osse found 
the stomach distended with such a quantity of beetles, cater- 
pillars, moths, and other insects, that he wondered how the 
mass could have been forced in : it occasionally feeds also 
on berries. Mr. Hill remarks, that the thin, knife-blade- 
like beak of the bird is used to open out the soft earth in 
which it seeks for its insect food, while it also assists it 
when searching for the ticks and other vermin imbedded in 
the long close hair of animals. The same accurate observer 
says, that about half-a-dozen of the Anis unite in building 
a nest, w^hich is capacious enough for them to resort to in 
common, and in this they rear their young ; they are very 
attentive when engaged in incubation, and never leave the 
nest without covering the eggs with leaves. The Anis are 
familiar birds, allowing approach and observation; but still 
they are wary, and fly off on the stranger coming too close to 
them, — a circumstance of which they are warned by the sen- 
tinel, for, when feeding, they never fail to appoint one of 
their number as a watch. 
