148 Messrs. A. and E. Newton’s Obsei'vations 
t 22. Ani. Crotophaga uni, L.; Buff. PL Enl. 102. “ Black 
Witch.” 
Very common, and, from its familiar habits and grotesque ap¬ 
pearance, universally known. Its manners have so often been 
described, that there remains little to be said of them. It lives in 
companies, and is delightfully noisy. It shares, as before men¬ 
tioned, with Tinnunculus sparverius and Butorides virescens, the 
privilege of being the favourite object of the attacks of the 
Chicheree [Tyrannus dominicensis, Bp.) ; and it is hard to say 
whether this bird or the one last mentioned affords most amuse¬ 
ment. If there is a fresh breeze, a flight after a Crotophaga is 
perhaps the best; for, with its long tail and short wings, it gets 
carried away helplessly. It loses its presence of mind, and tries 
perhaps to fly up wind, when “letting drive” would answer by 
far the best; down then comes the Tyrant, and, after one or two 
stoops, hits it such a blow as to send it anyhow into whatever 
shelter presents itself, whether an unpleasant-looking hedge of 
thorns, or a softer bed of Guinea-grass. In consequence of these 
encounters, it is, that the Ani’s plumage, and especially its tail, 
suffers very much; indeed, one can scarcely meet with a speci¬ 
men that has its final appendage at all in good order. There is 
an absurd notion prevalent in the island, that these birds are 
exempt from the common lot of creation, and that the name 
“ Black Witch ” has something to do with their supposed immor¬ 
tality; but it was more probably originally intended to express the 
bird’s ordinary call-note, which, as Mr. Hill rightly says (Gosse, 
B. Jam. p.289), sounds like the word “ que-yuch.” 
“On Junel8th, 1857,1 was shown a nest of this species. As 
I walked up to the tree (a pretty large Tamarind), I saw two birds 
sitting close to what I afterwards found to be the position of the 
nest, which was placed touching the trunk, supported by some 
young boughs that had apparently sprouted out within the last 
few years, and was about five feet from the ground. It was a 
rude collection of sticks and twigs, large and deep, but partly 
filled with dead leaves, among which I discovered fourteen eggs; 
and round the margin were stuck upright a few dead twigs of 
Tamarind. On the 23rd I again went to this nest, and took out 
two of the nine eggs I then found; but on the 26th there were 
