Chapter C: J. Maynard (1896) says (1)

In flight they most nearly resemble a Canada or Florida
Jay, alternately flopping and sailing, moving in a straight
forward flight from tree to tree with great rapidity,
uttering their mournful notes as they quickly disappear in
the distance. * * *

A careful study of the Anis convinced me of the fact that a
number of females are led by two or three males, and these
males take great care of their charges. They utter cries of
alarm when they perceive an intruder, and drive the females
before them into a place of safety. I have even seen males
fly against females or young birds which did not attempt to
escape soon enough, and knock them off the limb on which
they sat and then accompany them to a distant thicket.

I am inclined to think that the Ani is polygamous and this
habit of the males taking care of a number of females would
appear to confirm this idea.

Mr. Taylor (Scott, 1892) gives a somewhat different impression, thus:

The Blackbirds at their best have a very lean and shabby
appearance, and are slow and awkward in their movements.
I have watched an individual make several ineffectual
attempts to alight on the frond of a cocoanut palm; but
even among the branches of other trees their actions
appear awkward. Their flight is slow and gliding, somewhat
labored, and of little duration, the birds often appearing
to fall short of the point originally aimed at. Yet they
will chase the large yellow butterflies, and I was shown
a large green locust that one of these birds was seen to
capture in flight and afterwards drop. In the progress of
a flock from place to place they do not usually fly all
together, but move away in straggling groups or couples.
One or more individuals first start off with their wailing
call, followed soon after by two or three; after a little
delay then two more go; another pause, then one, then
three, and so on. If a tree has very dense foliage they
alight (with much awkward scrambling) on the tops or
extremities of the highest branches, where they may gain a
clear and uninterrupted view, and this is usually the case
when they are traversing very open country.

_Voice._--The note of the ani has been called a wailing or a whining whistle; it has been said to resemble the notes of the wood duck. Dr. Wetmore (1927) says: “The ordinary call-notes are a low _kur-r-rk_ and a querulous _quee ick, quee ick_, varied by low chuckling notes. When the birds are at all wild, they serve to alarm the entire country, as they begin to call on the slightest provocation.” It has also been expressed as _que-yuch, que-yuch, que-yuch_ by Gosse (1847) and similarly by others.

_Field marks._--The ani is such a peculiar and unique bird that it could hardly be mistaken for anything else. It is the only long, slender, black bird, with a long tail, short wings, and a huge bill, that is to be found within its range, so far as I know. Its shape and its manner of flight are quite different from those of the grackles; its concave back in flight, referred to above, is distinctive. Gosse (1847) says: “The appearance of the bird in its sliding flights is unusual; the body is slender, the head large, and the beak enormous; and as in flying it assumes a perfectly straight form, with the long tail in the same line, without flapping the wings, it takes the aspect, on a side view, rather of a fish than of a bird.”

Where our two small species of anis come together in Panama, they are likely to be confused, but the voices of the two are quite distinct; the call of the groove-billed is softer and higher in pitch, while that of the smooth-billed is more raucous and whining. The grooves in the bill of the former are not easily seen, except under favorable circumstances, but the culmen of the bill in the smooth-billed is much higher and sharper than in the groove-billed.

DISTRIBUTION

_Range._--South America and the West Indies; casual in winter in eastern Central America and casual or accidental in Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.

The normal range of the smooth-billed ani extends =north= to western Cuba (Los Indios and Nueva Gerona); the Bahama Islands (Little Abaco and Nassau); Haiti (Jacmel); the Dominican Republic (Sesua and Ciudad Trujillo); Puerto Rico (Aguidillo and Rio Piedras); and the Virgin Islands (Cuelebra, Vieques, and St. Croix). =East= to the Virgin Islands (St. Croix); the Lesser Antilles (Grenada and Trinidad); British Guiana (Georgetown); Surinam (Paramaribo); and eastern Brazil (Ilha Mexiana, Maranhao, Bahia, Sapetiba, Canatgallo, Rio de Janeiro, and Iguape). =South= to southeastern Brazil (Iguape); and northern Argentina (Posadas, the Chaco District, and San Jose). =West= to northwestern Argentina (San Jose, Concepcion, and Salta); Peru (Huanuco and Iquitos); northwestern Colombia (the Cauca River Valley); Panama (Gatun, Perme, and Obaldia); Jamaica (Port Henderson, Spanish Town, Grand Cayman, and Little Cayman); and western Cuba (Los Indios).

This species occurs in other parts of Central America only in winter, when it has been recorded from Costa Rica (Rio Coto); Nicaragua (Great and Little Corn Islands); Honduras (Ruatan Island); and Quintana Roo, Mexico (Cozumel Island).

_Casual records._--The following are among the several records the species has for Florida: Flamingo, a specimen taken in June 1916; Pass-a-Grille, a specimen collected on February 25, 1929; Dry Tortugas, three seen June 18 and 19, 1935; and Miami Beach, a small flock seen on February 24, 1937. Undated specimens also are available for Brevard County, Tortugas, Pepper Hammock near the head of the Banana River, and Charlotte Harbor.

A specimen was collected on July 18, 1893, at Diamond, and several have been reported from the vicinity of Buras, St. Bernard Parish, La. A specimen was collected previous to 1866 at Edenton, N. C., while individuals were reported from Piney Creek in the western part of that State on July 17, 1932, June 1, 1933, and June 25, 1934. There also is an old record of the occurrence of this species on Pettys Island in the Delaware River, opposite Kensington, Pa.

_Egg dates._--Bahamas: 2 records, June 14.

Brazil: 3 records, October 1 to November 18.

British Guiana: 3 records, January 14 to July 2.

Cuba: 4 records, February 22 to August 20.

Jamaica: 7 records, May 29 to July 30.

Puerto Rico: 2 records, July 25 and August 13.

CROTOPHAGA SULCIROSTRIS SULCIROSTRIS Swainson

GROOVE-BILLED ANI

PLATES 1, 2

HABITS

This Central and South American species was added to our fauna by George B. Sennett (1879), who secured a fine male on May 19, 1878, near Lomita, Tex., while it was “flying about the low bushes in open chaparral. It was very shy, flying in and about the bushes, and was shot on the wing.” The only one I have ever seen did not seem at all shy. I was sitting down, quietly watching some Texas sparrows that were hopping around on the ground near me, in some thick brush bordering a resaca near Brownsville, Tex., when one of these curious birds appeared. It seemed more curious than shy, as it moved about slowly in the bushes, looking me over; it remained in my vicinity for some time and I could have shot it easily. It is said to show a preference for thick underbrush in the vicinity of water, or for lightly wooded swamps.

In his proposed work on the birds of the Caribbean lowlands, Alexander F. Skutch devotes two long and very interesting chapters to the home life of the groove-billed ani. He has kindly placed at my disposal his unpublished manuscript and allowed me to quote freely from it. As to its haunts, he writes: “The variety of the habitat of the anis is enormous and their only restriction seems to be that they do not tolerate the forest and are never seen there. They are birds of open country but seem nearly indifferent to its type. In the inhabited districts of the humid coastal regions they are one of the most conspicuous species. Their favorite haunts are bushy pastures, orchards, the lighter second growth, and even lawns and clearings about the native huts. Marshland is as acceptable to them as a well-drained hillside, and they are numerous in such extensive stands of sawgrass as that surrounding the Toloa Lagoon in Honduras, although it is probable that they do not venture far from some outstanding hummock or ridge which supports a few low bushes in which they can roost and nest. In the semidesert regions of the interior, where their associates of the coast lands, if present at all, are as a rule rare and restricted to the moist thickets along the rivers, they are among the most numerous of birds, and live among scattered cacti and acacias as successfully as amid the rankest vegetation of the districts watered by 12 feet of rainfall in the year. In altitude they range upward to 5,000 feet, but are not nearly so numerous in the elevated districts as in the lowlands.”

_Nesting._--Dr. Charles W. Richmond, drawing on his experience with it near Bluefields, Nicaragua, sent some elaborate notes on the groove-billed ani to Major Bendire (1895), from which I quote as follows:

It appears to breed at various times during the year, as
I have found fresh eggs July 6, 1892, and young birds,
recently from the nest, November 29, the breeding season
spreading over seven months of the year at least, as it
begins nesting earlier than the date of taking my first
eggs. Nests are frequently built in the heart of a thick,
thorny orange or lemon tree, and this appears to be a
favorite situation. In this case the nest is from 4 to 7
feet from the ground, and, besides being difficult to get
at, is somewhat protected from invasion by the wasps which
almost invariably take up their abode in the same tree.
In going through a small lemon grove I found an old nest
of this species. In the cavity there were no eggs, but on
poking the nest to pieces six badly decayed eggs rolled out.

One nest containing three eggs in the proper place and two
others at the bottom, under the lining of green leaves, was
located in a bamboo about 12 feet from the ground. The eggs
were fresh, and more would probably have been deposited;
the leaves forming the lining were still green. The parent
birds were away at the time. Another nest was situated in
some vines which had over-run an old tree stub, and was
about 15 feet from the ground.

It may be that where numerous eggs are deposited in one
nest only those eggs that are deposited in the proper
place and directly influenced by the incubating bird are
hatched, while those placed among the sticks forming the
bulky exterior are left unhatched. It would be interesting
to watch the progress of a large nestful of eggs and note
results. The nests found by me were all composed of dead
black twigs, rather loosely put together, very bulky and
conspicuous structures, lined with green leaves, or, if old
nests, with leaves that had the appearance of having been
picked green.

One of Dr. Richmond’s nests is described by Major Bendire (1895) as “a rather loose structure, about 10 inches in diameter and 4 inches in height. The inner cup measures 4 inches in diameter by 2½ inches in depth.”

According to George K. Cherrie (1892) Señor Don Anastasio Alfaro says of the nests he collected in Costa Rica:

The structure is voluminous, composed chiefly of coarse
dead twigs, but presents one peculiarity not observed in
any other bird, namely the nest being lined with fresh
green leaves. My three specimens were all placed in low
trees, and neither was found at a greater height than three
meters. One had been built above an old nest of one of the
larger Tyrannidae.

It will not be without interest, I think, to insert my
observations relative to one of these nests. On the 20th
of May I noticed a Zopilotillo with a dry stick in its
bill, which was immediately carried to a point in the
hedge-row where it was deposited with three others. After
assuring myself that the bird was building its nest there,
I retired, with the intention of returning at a more
opportune moment. And when one week later I returned to
the same spot, what was my surprise to see not only the
nest completed and containing six eggs, but more than this:
in the thorns and leaves about it were scattered seven
more eggs! As a consequence, if that collection was not
the work of the Zopilotillos collectively, the poor owner
would have had to deposit three eggs daily! In the finding
of some of the eggs scattered in the leaves was revealed
one of the architect’s peculiarities. A hole had been left
in the centre of the nest and only recently filled with
leaves whose fresh green color testified that they had been
cut and placed there later than the others forming the
carpeting to the bottom of this common incubator.

Alden H. Miller (1932) writes of his experience with the nesting habits of the groove-billed ani in El Salvador:

Several nests were watched from the time there was one
egg until there were nine, or in one case eleven, eggs.
The eggs were deposited regularly at one day intervals
and there was no certain indication in any of the sets,
of two females contributing to the same nest as has been
claimed by other observers. My findings, however, do not
prove conclusively that community nests may not exist, at
least occasionally. Incubation is uniform within a set
and, correspondingly, birds were found to be incubating
regularly only after the sets were completed. In the set
of thirteen the eggs were resting in three layers in the
necessarily ample cup of the nest.

Nest sites were from two feet to twenty-five feet above
ground in almost any kind of bush or tree. Usually they
were located between six and twelve feet above ground in
thorny tangles or close twiggery. One nest was found,
however, in an open crotch of a fan of a royal palm. Adult
birds are not much in evidence around nests which are being
built or around sets of incomplete eggs. When flushed from
sets of complete eggs, they may approach within five feet
of the intruder and utter their feeble, squeaking notes of
protest.

A. J. van Rossem (1938) found several nests, on July 29, 1925, “in the mimosa scrub in the marsh along the north shore of Lake Olomega,” in El Salvador. “These nests were all in similar situations, that is, they were rather conspicuously placed in mimosa bushes and more than six feet above the mud or water.”

Mr. Skutch devoted considerable time to studying the communal nesting habits of the groove-billed ani. He found them to be among the latest birds to breed, remaining together in small flocks from February to May while the other birds of the region were raising their broods. During June he watched the construction of a communal nest, on which three pairs worked in perfect harmony, operating in pairs and not as a unit. One of the pair remained on the nest while its mate brought in the material. There was not the least jealousy between the pairs, and “two or more pairs often perched quietly in the same bush. Each pair preferred to work alone at the nest, and if a second pair flew into the nesting tree, the first often quietly withdrew. This was not always their conduct, and sometimes one of the second pair (probably the female) took a place on the nest beside one of the first pair, while their two mates perched near by, or else brought them sticks.

“The normal set of eggs for each female is three, or more commonly four. Nests belonging to a single pair generally contain this number, and the nests belonging to two pairs, which I encountered, contained a maximum of eight. Once I found a nest with 12 eggs, which covered the bottom two layers deep, and six birds were interested in them. * * * Of ten nests which I found in Honduras and Guatemala and was able to watch for an adequate period, four were the property of single pairs, five of two pairs together, and one belonged to three pairs in common.”

All the birds of both sexes took turns in incubating the eggs, but their shifts on the nest had no regular order and no fixed duration. “Just as the parents cooperate in incubating the eggs, they all join in the care of the nestlings. I have watched three nests, each belonging to two pairs, during the time they contained young. Two of them, I made quite sure, were attended by four adults, but at the other I could not convince myself that there were more than three attendants. Possibly some calamity had befallen the fourth bird, or possibly also I failed to recognize it, since the anis at this nest were unmarked and indistinguishable.”

_Eggs._--The groove-billed ani lays 4 to 13 eggs, the smaller numbers being apparently commoner. The eggs vary in shape from oval to elliptical-oval, or rarely to elliptical-ovate or rounded-ovate. The ground color, when visible, varies from “glaucous-blue” to “Nile blue” or “pale Nile blue”; when first laid, the ground color is completely covered with a thin layer of dull white, chalky deposit, which eventually becomes somewhat discolored; as incubation progresses this chalky covering becomes more or less scratched, by contact with the twigs in the nest or by the action of the bird’s feet in turning the eggs, or in relining the nest, so that ultimately much or nearly all of the blue ground color is visible; even then the shell is not glossy. The measurements of 51 eggs average 30.93 by 24.06 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =35= by 25, 32 by =26=, and =27.68= by =21.84= millimeters.

_Young._--Mr. Skutch determined, by close observation of marked birds and by noting which individual of a marked pair laid the eggs, that both sexes share in the duties of incubation. They were very impatient sitters, constantly changing about; 30 minutes was the longest time that he saw one incubate, during the early stages, and they sometimes left the nest unguarded for 10 or 20 minutes, while they enjoyed each other’s company; during the last two days of incubation they lengthened their periods on the eggs to from 30 minutes to an hour. He describes the hatching process in detail:

“Fourteen days after the last egg had been laid, I held one in my hand while the birdling worked its way out of it. When I first took it up there was a gap in the larger end, which extended about a third of the way around the circumference. The little bird’s short, thick bill was in this gap, and so pressed out of position that the lower mandible overshot the upper, only a temporary condition. At intervals the struggling prisoner drew its bill farther into the egg, then suddenly pushed it outward, bringing the keeled upper edge, armed with a rather insignificant egg-tooth or ‘pip,’ against the edge of the shell at one end of the hole, and breaking off a small fragment at the outward thrust. In its squirmings the bird, impelling itself in some manner I could not determine, rotated imperceptibly slowly in the shell, in such a way that the head, turned under one wing, moved backward and the upper edge of the bill was constantly brought to bear upon a fresh portion of the shell, which was chipped off at the next outward thrust. Occasionally the struggling birdling emitted a weak cry. Thus bit by bit the ragged-margined aperture was lengthened until it extended about two-thirds of the way around the egg, when the struggles of the bird succeeded in cracking the remainder, and the large end of the shell fell off as a cap. Then the naked creature wormed its way out into my palm, where it lay exhausted by its continued effort.”

In another nest the last egg to be laid hatched in 13 days. The young, when first hatched, “were blind, black-skinned, and without any trace of feathers.” When the nestlings were 6 days old they were “both bristling with long pinfeathers. The plumes of the one that was the older by a few hours were already beginning to peep through the tips of these pinfeathers.” Later in the day, the feathers had burst their sheaths with amazing rapidity, and the young bird “was already well covered. The back and belly, save for a naked line down the middle of the latter, bore a soft, downy black plumage. Broad ends of the flight feathers of both wings and tail now showed.”

From this time on, the young birds became more lively and left the nest when approached, climbing about among the branches or down onto the ground to hide in the grass. They were brooded by one of the parents until they were a week old, returning to the nest at night. But “the following two nights they remained in the nesting tree but did not return to the nest to sleep. They could not yet fly and had entered a half scansorial, half terrestrial stage of existence. When they were 10 days old I tried to catch them for a photograph, but they hopped from limb to limb with such agility that, protected as they were by the sharp thorns, I was unable to secure them. When they were 10 days old they could make short flights from branch to branch of the same bush. Their bills were smooth, without any grooves, and their cheeks were bare of feathers.”

All through his account Mr. Skutch emphasizes the affection that is shown by all the members of the ani family for one another. While he was watching the second nest of the pair on which the above observations were made, something very unusual, if not entirely unique, happened. One of the young from the previous brood, now nearly fully grown, “was the constant companion of his parents during the period in which they were busy with their second brood.” He frequently perched on the rim of the nest while one of his parents was incubating, and twice he was seen to offer food to the parent on the nest. After the young had hatched, “the youngster fed the nestlings regularly, but not so often as his parents.” During four hours and a quarter, he saw the male, always the more attentive parent, bring food to the nestlings 29 times, the female 14, and the young assistant 8 times. “The young bird not only fed the nestlings but was ardent in protecting them, flying up close to me and uttering an angry _grrr-rr-rr_ whenever I came near them. In the absence of the parents he attempted to defend them alone.”

_Plumages._--The young nestling and the development of its first plumage are described above. In this juvenal plumage the contour feathers are short and soft, “bone brown” below and darker above; the wings and tail are much like those of the adult; the bill is less specialized and not grooved.

Van Rossem (1938) says:

The postjuvenal plumage, attained by a complete body and
tail and a partial wing molt, is not different from that
of the adults except that the rectrices are noticeably
narrower. An irregular molt of the primaries takes place
at this time, although some of the juvenal quills (though
their number and location varies) are held over till the
following spring. In March and April of the next year
there is a partial body, tail, and wing molt in which an
irregular number of rectrices are renewed and such juvenile
remiges as have been held over from the previous fall are
replaced by new ones. The adult plumage with wide rectrices
follows in the second fall, that is, at the first annual
molt. The time of the annual molt extends from the middle
of July to the first of October, the younger (one-year-old)
birds molting earlier than the older ones. The spring
molt of the adults includes some of the rectrices and
secondaries.

_Food._--Mr. Skutch writes (MS.): “The food of the anis consists largely of insects, which they secure both from the ground and among the foliage of bushes, and to a smaller extent of fruit and berries. Often they hunt grasshoppers and other creatures among the long grass or tall weeds, where they are completely hidden from view except when occasionally they leap a foot or so above the herbage to snatch up an insect which has tried to escape by flight. Perhaps their favorite method of foraging is beside a grazing cow or mule. Several together remain close to the head of the beast, moving along by awkward hops as it moves and just managing to escape its jaws and forefeet, ever on the alert to snatch up the insects frightened from their retreat in the grass by the passage of the herbivore. It is frequently stated in books, and affirmed by the residents of the countries where the anis live, that they alight upon cattle and pluck ticks and other vermin from their skin--hence the name _garrapatero_ (tick-eater) given them in Costa Rica.

“While this is doubtless true in certain parts of the ani’s range, I have watched them in the neighborhood of cattle from Panama to Guatemala and only once in three years have I seen an ani alight on a cow. Since the ani associates so much with cattle without alighting upon them, and the giant cowbird, another black bird of approximately the same size, does frequently perch upon them and relieve them of their vermin, it seems likely that the ani may be often credited with the acts of the cowbird, especially since the latter is shier and less known. I have occasionally questioned one who informed me that the ani plucks ticks from the grazing animals, only to find that he was unaware of the existence of the giant cowbird. At a little distance such a person might easily suppose that the birds upon the animal’s back were the same as those about its feet, and since his closer approach would leave only the latter, the illusion would probably persist.”

He has also seen a group of anis excitedly following a battalion of army ants, probably not to feed on such fiery morsels as the ants, but to pick up “the cockroaches, spiders, and other small creatures driven from their retreat among the dead leaves by the relentless hordes.” Again he says: “After the first heavy rain of the season has sent the winged brood of the termites forth from their nests in countless millions, one can watch the anis everywhere feeding like flycatchers, making ungraceful darts, not exceeding a few feet, from low twigs and fences; but the insects are so numerous on these occasions that they can catch many without quitting their perches.”

Major Bendire (1895) quotes Dr. Richmond as saying: “The food of those examined by me on banana plantations consisted almost entirely of small grasshoppers, the stomachs being much distended with these insects. From the fresh earth found on the bill and feet of these birds, I should judge they also feed on the ground.”

Prof. A. L. Herrara, of the City of Mexico, wrote to Bendire that “it is a social bird, being usually found in small companies of from six to fifteen individuals, absolutely monogamous, sedentary, and of semidomesticated habits, frequenting the haciendas and the fields and pastures in their vicinity, and as it is considered very useful because of its habit of destroying large numbers of parasites infesting the cattle, it is not molested by the inhabitants, and becomes very tame. It extracts the _Ixodes_ and other _Acaridans_ with remarkable skill, without causing ulcerations which might result from the proboscis or sucker remaining in the fibres of the skin, and it must be regarded as one of the most useful birds of Mexico, especially in warm regions, so abounding in parasites of all kinds.”

_Behavior._--Dr. Richmond (Bendire, 1895) says:

At Mr. Haymond’s plantation, on the Escondido River,
above Bluefields, this species was unusually plentiful,
owing, no doubt, to a large number of cattle kept there.
The birds follow these animals as they meander over the
pastures, hopping along on each side of an animal, catching
grasshoppers and other insects which the cow disturbs as
it moves along. Frequently the cow moves too rapidly and
the birds lag behind, when they make short flights to the
front again, passing over one another after the manner of
the Grackles when feeding in a field. Only half a dozen
birds or so follow a cow usually, and not many congregate
in a flock, except when roosting. On this plantation, where
the species is more abundant than usual, the birds appear
to roost in numbers. An orange tree near the house was a
favorite place where thirty or forty birds came to pass the
night, flying in from the surrounding pasture about dusk,
and after a few short flights from one tree to another,
passed into the roost one or two at a time, hopping about
as if seeking a favorable perch, uttering their peculiar
note meanwhile. Out of this roost I shot seventeen birds
one evening, and the males greatly predominated; there
were only five females in the lot. The note of this
species reminds one somewhat of the Flicker, _Colaptes
auratus_, but may be better represented by the combination
“plee-co,” rapidly repeated, with the accent usually on
the first syllable, but sometimes on the last. I have
frequently found one of the small flocks resting on a bush
or bamboo along the water’s edge, perfectly silent, until
my near approach started them off, one or two at a time,
scolding as they went. Their flight is even, slow, as short
as possible, and consists of a few flaps of the wings,
followed by a short sail, then a few more flaps, etc.

Mr. Skutch writes (MS.): “Their flight is as perfectly characteristic of the birds as any other of their peculiar habits. A long journey, say anything much in excess of a hundred yards, is seldom made by a continuous flight, but the bird advances with frequent pauses in conveniently situated trees and bushes. As he alights on one of the lower branches, the momentum of the long tail carries it forward above the head with an abrupt jerk. Recovering his balance, he remains here for some moments, looking around with caution and calling in his high-pitched voice. Then, satisfied that the path ahead is clear, with a _tuc tuc tuc, pihuy pihuy pihuy_, he launches himself upon the next stage of his journey. A few rapid beats of his short wings serve to impart the requisite momentum, and he sets them for a long glide. In this manner he can cover surprisingly long distances, on a slightly descending course, without further muscular effort. If his ultimate destination is a certain perch in a tree or bush, he will often arrest his flight on another considerably below it. By a few queer, rapid, sideways hops along the branch, and some bounds, or better bounces, from limb to limb, he gains the desired position where, as likely as not, he spreads his wings to the morning sun.”

Mr. van Rossem (1938) says: “They feed side by side with never a sign of friction or argument over the choicer insects, and at night roost in low trees or bushes, pressed shoulder to shoulder to the limit of available space. We not infrequently found them thus when hunting at night. During the time just preceding nesting it was noticeable that they were inclined to roost two and two instead of in a long line. In some cases the pair was sitting in close contact, even though there might be plenty of room to perch comfortably.”

_Voice._--Dr. Richmond’s impression of the note of the groove-billed ani is mentioned above. Señor Alfaro says, in his notes given Mr. Cherrie (1892), that, in Costa Rica, it is “known as ‘Tijo, tijo’ (tée-ho) in imitation of its peculiar notes which seem to repeat the word _tijo_ over and over again.” Dr. Chapman (1896) says: “Its note is a prolonged _chee-wyyah_, easily distinguishable from the single whining whistle of _C. ani_.” Mr. van Rossem (1938) says: “The ordinary or ‘conversational’ notes are a series of very liquid and what can best be described as ‘contented’ bubblings and cluckings. The louder, often repeated ‘chee-múy-o-chee-múy-o’ is the alarm note.”

DISTRIBUTION

_Range._--Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas and Baja California, south to northern South America.

The range of the groove-billed ani extends =north= to southern Baja California (San Pedro and Santiago); southern Sinaloa (Mazatlan); southern Texas (Lomita and Corpus Christi); and Yucatan (Progreso and Chichen-Itza). =East= to Yucatan (Chichen-Itza); British Honduras (Cayo); Honduras (La Ceiba); Colombia (Santa Marta); and Venezuela (Altagracia, Curaçao, and Caicara). =South= to Venezuela (Caicara); and Peru (Chachapoyas and Lima). =West= to Peru (Lima and Cutervo); Ecuador (Tumbez); Costa Rica (San Jose and La Palma); El Salvador (Sonsonate); western Guatemala (Lake Amatitlan); southwestern Chiapas (Tapachula); Nayarit (San Blas); and southern Baja California (San Jose del Cabo and San Pedro).

The birds found in the cape district of Baja California have been separated subspecifically and are known as the San Lucas ani, _C. s. pallidula_.

_Casual records._--In Louisiana a specimen was collected near New Orleans about 1890; another was taken at Ostrica during the winter of 1919; a third was obtained without date of collection near Houma; a fourth was taken at Cottonport on December 11, 1932; while a fifth was collected on Grand Isle on April 23, 1935. A specimen was taken at Huachucas, Ariz., 10 miles from the Mexican border, in May 1888, and it was noted at a point 20 miles north of Tucson on August 21, 1932. About November 1, 1904, a specimen was taken near Emporia, Kans., and on October 12, 1913, one was killed on an island about 9 miles north of Red Wing, Minn. A specimen was obtained at Jupiter Inlet, Fla., during the first week in January 1891, and there is also a somewhat indefinite record of its occurrence in the early part of January in the vicinity of Kingston, Jamaica.

_Egg dates._--Central America: 4 records, May 27 to July 29.

Baja California: 6 records, April 1 to September 3.

Mexico: 40 records, March 20 to August 14; 20 records, May 16 to June 30, indicating the height of the season.

Texas: 7 records, March 17 to July 15.

CROTOPHAGA SULCIROSTRIS PALLIDULA Bangs and Penard

SAN LUCAS ANI

HABITS

The groove-billed ani of the Cape region of Lower California, Mexico, was described and given the above name by Bangs and Penard (1921), based on a series of 18 specimens from San José del Cabo. It is said to be--

similar to _Crotophaga sulcirostris sulcirostris_ Swainson
of Mexico, and of about the same size, but much paler
and with less purplish iridescence; the U-shaped iridescent
markings of the back and breast paler and duller greenish,
not so brilliant; the dull purplish bronze of the head
and neck of true _sulcirostris_ replaced by paler, more
grayish bronze; the lustreless parts of the body-feathers
grayish brownish black instead of dull black. * * *

Eighteen adults of this new form, laid out beside a series
of nearly double that number from various points in Mexico
and Central America, are strikingly different; the pale,
dull colors of the Lower California bird cannot be matched
by any specimen in our series of true _sulcirostris_. The
difference is noticeable at a glance but rather difficult
to describe. Brewster (1902), in his account of the birds
of the Cape Region of Lower California, states that the
Groove-billed Ani is not known to occur in central and
northern Lower California, and that the colonies which
have become established in the Cape region were probably
originated by birds which came from western Mexico. However
this may be, the isolated colony of Cape St. Lucas has
developed into a very distinct form, worthy of recognition.

Griffing Bancroft writes to me, on August 6, 1937, that he is “as nearly satisfied as it is possible to be from negative evidence” that this form of the groove-billed ani is extinct.

_Nesting._--Lyman Belding (1883) writes: “The 1st of April I discovered four of these birds in a marsh, in which was a rank growth of _tule_, flags, and reeds. Having shot one of them, and the others were not molested, they remained in the marsh until May 15, or later. A nest found April 29 contained eight eggs. It was fastened to upright reeds, and was composed of coarse weed stalks and mesquite twigs, lined with green leaves. The female, while incubating, was very wary, slipping quietly away from the nest and returning to it very stealthily, below the tops of the reeds.”

William Brewster (1902) says that the nest “taken by Mr. Frazar was in a willow about twenty feet above the ground. It is a flat-loose, but withal rather neat structure, formed outwardly of dead twigs and very substantially lined with cottonwood and willow leaves, which look as if they must have been dry when gathered. * * * This nest measures about six inches across the top, and the cavity is nearly an inch in depth. * * * Mr. Frazar met with the Groove-billed Ani only at San José del Cabo, where a flock of about thirty frequented some thick brush about pools of water near the mouth of the river.”

_Eggs._--The eggs of this race are apparently just like those of the species elsewhere. The measurements of 9 eggs average 31.99 by 24.00 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =33.5= by 23, 31.8 by =24.9=, and 30.5 by =23= millimeters.

GEOCOCCYX CALIFORNIANUS (Lesson)

ROADRUNNER

PLATES 3–6

HABITS

CONTRIBUTED BY GEORGE MIKSCH SUTTON

Most ornithologists are to some extent acquainted with the roadrunner. They have read about him. They have heard strange stories about him. Perhaps, driving along some road in the Southwestern United States, they have even seen him. But he who really knows the roadrunner has risen morning after morning with the desert sun; thrilled at the brilliance of the desert stars; seen day turned to sudden night by the dust-storm; pulled cactus spines from his shins. He who knows the roadrunner, he who has measured the breadth and the depth of this unique bird personality, has lived with him--not for an hour or so, not for a day, but week after week after week.

First impressions almost invariably give us an inadequate concept of this strange bird. We hear him scuttle through dry leaves ahead of us, catch a glimpse of him as he slips back of a rock, know from the flight of a grasshopper that he has gone a certain way, and that is all. Or, coming upon him suddenly, we surprise him into flight; note his short, rounded wings, long tail, and coarsely streaked plumage; watch him sail down the arroyo; and marvel that with the shutting of his wings and reckless plunge into the thicket he is so instantly lost to view.

Sometimes, traveling in a motorcar, we come upon him perched on a fence post or telegraph pole close to the highway. Now we have opportunity to observe how slim he is, how long his legs, how noticeable his crest. But as we pass he leaps to the ground, swings off through the cactus clumps, and is gone. Once more only a glimpse! Once more only the retreat of a timid desert creature that appears to be half bird, half reptile.

But lie in wait for the roadrunner! Watch him race across the sand, full speed, after a lizard. Watch him put out a wing, change his course, throw up his tail, change his course again, plunge headlong into a clump of cactus, and emerge, whacking his limp victim on the ground. Watch him jerk a slender snake from the grass, fling it into the air, grasp it by the head or neck, pummel it with his hard mandibles, and gulp it head first. Watch him stalk a grasshopper, slipping quietly forward, making a sudden rush with wings and tail fully spread, frightening the doomed insect into flight, then leaping 3 or 4 feet in air to snatch it flycatcherwise in his long bill. Watch the roadrunner for an hour at his daily business of catching food and you will deem him among the most amazing of all the desert’s amazing creatures. Snake-killer indeed! Chaparral cock! Not by sitting quietly on fence posts, not by slipping shyly from the path, has the roadrunner earned for himself these bloodstirring names!

So odd, so even _funny_ a creature is the roadrunner that it is natural to caricature him a bit in describing him. This J. L. Sloanaker (1913) has done when he writes:

Of all the birds on our list the Roadrunner is doubtless
the most unique; indeed, he is _queer_, and would certainly
take first prize in the freak class at the Arizona state
fair. He is about two feet in length, with a tail as long
as his body, color above brown streaked with black, bare
spaces around eyes blue and orange, feathers of head and
neck bristle-tipped, eyelids lashed, * * * his whole
plumage coarse and harsh. Could you imagine such a looking
creature? Try and think of a long striped snake on two
legs, a feather duster on his head and another trailing
behind; or a tall, slim tramp in a swallow-tailed coat, a
black and blue eye, and a head of hair standing straight on
end! There you are!

Elliott Coues (1903) describes roadrunners as “singular birds--cuckoos compounded of a chicken and a Magpie.” Mrs. Bailey (1902) considers them among the “most original and entertaining of western birds.” Other writers call them “odd,” “anomalous,” and “unique.” They are.

Throughout much of his range the roadrunner is known as the chaparral cock, or merely the chaparral. He also is called lizard bird, ground cuckoo, cock of the desert, and, as we have stated above, snake killer. The Mexicans call him the _paisano_ or the _correo del camino_. The first of these names means _compatriot_ or _fellow countryman_; according to some writers it expresses affectionate regard, and is to be freely translated “little friend.” The latter is almost the equivalent of our name roadrunner.

That the roadrunner has at times been known as the _churca_ we learn from an interesting note by Elliott Coues (1900) who quotes from an anonymous Franciscan priest the following description, published in 1790: “The _Churca_ is a kind of pheasant which has a long bill, dark plumage, a handsome tail and _four feet_. It has these latter facing outward in such fashion that when it runs it leaves the track of two feet going forward and two going backward.”

Coues himself calls attention to the fact that the word “toes” must replace the word “feet” in the above paragraph if the description is to fit the roadrunner. The error may well have been the translator’s. At any rate, anyone who has observed a roadrunner’s tracks in the sand knows how faithfully these record the zygodactylism of the bird’s foot.

Many a fanciful tale is told of the roadrunner. According to the best known of these, the bird builds a fence of cactus spines about a sleeping rattler, letting the doomed reptile buffet itself to weariness until finally, in desperation, it is impaled on the spines or bites itself to death! According to other stories (some of which probably have a grain of truth in them), the bird will deliberately race the swiftest horse across the plains!

The speed of the roadrunner _is_ remarkable. Not when he is flying--a flying roadrunner is as much out of his element as a swimming chicken--but when he is afoot. A. W. Anthony (1892) tells us of a pair of birds that apparently enjoyed being chased by a hound that could never catch them. He says:

At Hatchita [New Mexico] a pair came regularly to one of
the mines for water, a small pool having been formed near
the shaft, from the pumps. The visit was made at nearly the
same hour each forenoon, and was eagerly looked forward to
by a foxhound owned by one of the workmen. The dog never
failed to give chase as soon as the birds were sighted, and
the race was as much enjoyed by the birds as by the dog;
they seemed to have no difficulty whatever in keeping well
out of danger without taking wing, and usually found time
during the chase to stop at the water hole and get their
daily drink, after which they quickly disappeared.

H. C. Bryant (1916) quotes from Heermann that the roadrunner “may, however, be overtaken when followed on horseback over the vast open plains,” and Heermann is known to have seen “one captured by a couple of dogs.”

Richard Hunt (1920), who was able to check with a speedometer the actual speed of a roadrunner encountered “en route from Soledad to the Galiban Range” in California, writes: “At the top speed to which we provoked our victim, the famous runner was moving at the tremendous rate of 10 miles an hour on a practically level piece of road.”

H. H. Sheldon (1922a), who also checked the roadrunner’s running speed with a speedometer, writes of the incident: “The car gained on the bird until about five yards separated us, and I saw it was running at its utmost speed. I instructed my friend, who was driving, not to press him further, and for fully three hundred yards the bird ran from the big monster in pursuit, the while the speedometer registered exactly fifteen miles per hour. When finally we approached very closely, the bird gave up and flew into a palm, where I plainly saw it, beak agape and apparently very much fatigued from the unusual exertion.”

There is no doubt in my own mind that a fully adult roadrunner, can, for short distances, run faster than 15 miles an hour. Athletic directors tell us that an average man (not an athlete) can run 9 yards a second, or about 18 miles an hour. I know I can run as fast as the average man, and I know I have failed many a time to gain on a roadrunner that happened to appear on the road a short distance ahead of me. I distinctly recall catching two _young_ roadrunners (with tails 7 or 8 inches long) in a little gully near Fort Worth, Tex., in about the year 1913. I had quite a chase and might never have caught them had they not been forced to run up a steep embankment.

_Spring._--We have seen the roadrunner sneak off through the weeds--a frightened bird. We have seen him capture lizards, snakes, scorpions, centipedes, tarantulas--a veritable monster. But not until we have heard him sing do we know the finer side (as Aldrovandus of old would say) of his nature. On fine spring mornings he sings as the sun rises, and he may continue his fervent if somewhat monotonous performance for an hour or more. His favorite songperch is the eastern rim of a mesa where, full in the fresh sunlight, he can see far and wide. If there is no mesa, he chooses a dead tree or a high cactus. Here, directing his bill downward until it almost touches his toes, he begins to coo. _Coo, coo, coo, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh_, he calls, pumping out the syllables in a hoarse, throaty voice, his head rising a little with each _coo_, until the bill points upward, the pitch of the song meanwhile dropping gradually lower. So he starts with head low and coo high, and ends vice versa. Cattlemen say that before he begins his song he “lays his beak on the rock.”

The pumped-out series of coos we have just described doubtless is the roadrunner’s love song. Before giving it he may parade in a prominent place, strutting with head held stiff and high, and wings and tail drooping. On May 2, 1914, I witnessed what I believe were certain courtship antics of the male before the female not far from Fort Worth, Tex. According to the published account (Sutton, 1922) of this performance, the bird’s “wings were spread, and he may have been preening and taking a sun bath, but circumstances * * * led me to think otherwise. Now and then he bowed, and affected a close examination of his feet, only to raise his head again, drop his wings, lift them again and spread his tail. * * * Before I knew it [I] was discovered * * * and then, without wings spread, leaped from the dead branch to the next lower one, whence on outstretched wings he sailed to the ground. I rushed up to where he had been, and was surprised to see two birds scuttling * * * off through the vines.”

_Nesting._--The nest, which usually is situated in a low tree, thicket, or clump of cactus 3 or 4 to 15 feet from the ground, is a rather compact, though not deeply cupped affair, about a foot in diameter and 6 to 8 inches high, with foundation of sticks and lining of leaves, grass, feathers, mesquite pods, snakeskin, roots, and dry flakes of cattle and horse manure. It is sometimes well hidden, sometimes not. In the Black Mesa country of the far western Oklahoma Panhandle John Semple and I found several nests in small cedar trees that grew on the mesa sides. Here the nests were well hidden, and since cedar trees were numerous our usual method of locating nests was watching the parent birds.

Rarely the nest is built on the ground. Such a nest, containing six eggs, was found by W. W. Brown in Sonora, Mexico, on May 15, 1905. This nest is preserved in the John E. Thayer collection.

A. C. Bent writes me of a nest found by F. C. Willard in Cochise County, Ariz., on April 23, 1916, “7 feet from the ground on a packrat’s nest in a dense thicket of hawthorn.” This nest was “merely a few leaves, etc., in a slight hollow in the rubbish of the rat’s nest.” While Mr. Bent was hunting ravens’ nests among the abandoned oil derricks in the Kettleman Hills, Calif., his companion, J. R. Pemberton, told him that roadrunners sometimes built their nests in the lower parts of the derricks, using the sticks dropped by the ravens. Griffing Bancroft (1930) describes a nest with complete set of two eggs found in Lower California in the heart of a date palm * * * so well concealed that it could not be seen until much of the foliage had been cut away.

_Eggs._--Roadrunner nests contain, as a rule, three to five or six eggs. Occasionally two eggs comprise a complete set; and sets with as many as 12 eggs have been recorded. Where large numbers of eggs are found in one nest it is supposed that more than one female has deposited them. Coues (1903) describes the eggs as “ovate or elliptical, white in ground color with an overlying chalky film which may take a slight yellowish tint, ranging in length from 1.45 to 1.75, averaging 1.55 x 1.20. They are laid at considerable intervals; incubation begins as soon as a few are deposited, and is believed to last 18 days for each egg. The development of the chicks is rapid; perfectly fresh eggs and newly-hatched young may be found together; and by the time the last young are breaking the shell the others may be graded up to half the size of the adult.”

[AUTHOR’S NOTE: The measurements of 55 eggs average 39.2 by 30.1 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =44= by 30, 41 by =32=, and =34= by =27.5= millimeters.]

William L. and Irene Finley (1915) describe a typical nest in which there were “one fresh egg, one egg just ready to hatch, two featherless, greasy, black young, and two young ones about grown and ready to leave home.” These authors were in a position to watch this nest almost continuously for several days. They did not observe more than one female parent. If, then, the several eggs were laid by more than one female, it may be supposed that the species is to some extent parasitic or promiscuous in this regard, as the yellow-billed and black-billed cuckoos also are thought to be.

Frank L. Burns (1915) also gives the period of incubation as “18 days.” It is supposed that only the female incubates. That incubation sometimes begins with the laying of the first egg rather than “as soon as a few are deposited” (see above quotation from Coues) has been observed by M. French Gilman (1915), who tells us of a nest with four eggs in which “one hatched July 20, the others on the three succeeding days.” In cases of this sort it is natural to suppose that all eggs are laid by the same female.