Chapter III: Introduction (2)

_Nesting._--Practically all we know about the nesting habits of the thick-billed parrot is contained in the report of Col. John E. Thayer (1906) on some ten nests of this species examined by Wilmot W. Brown, Jr., in 1905, in the mountains near Colonia Pachaco and Colonia Garcia, Chihuahua, Mexico. The breeding grounds were at altitudes varying from 6,500 to 7,500 feet, and all the nests were in the tall pines, characteristic of the region. The parrots occupied the old nests of the imperial woodpecker, which had been excavated at heights ranging from 50 to 80 feet above ground; one nest was in a living longleaf pine, but all the others were in dead, dry, or rotten pines. The entrance to the hole was usually circular and 6 or 7 inches in diameter; the holes varied in depth from 18 to 24 inches, and the inner cavity measured from 8 to 10 inches in diameter. No nesting material had been brought in, the eggs having been laid on the bare wood dust left by woodpeckers. One nest, found on August 20, contained two big young ones and one fresh egg; another found on August 28, held two young ones. All the other nests, found between August 11 and 25, contained one or two eggs. Mr. Brown wrote to Colonel Thayer (1906) that the first tree he climbed was “located on a flat-topped mountain at an altitude of 7,500 feet above the sea. * * * The tree was about one hundred feet high and was thirty-six inches in diameter at the base and was so dry that the bark had all peeled off. It was very difficult to climb, not to mention the danger.” The nest was 80 feet from the ground.

_Eggs._--I have examined the eggs referred to above, which, with the entire Thayer collection, are now in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, in Cambridge. They vary in shape from ovate to rounded-ovate, are pure white in color, and are decidedly glossy; the shell is hard and thick. The measurements of 20 eggs average 39.49 by 30.63 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =42= by 31. 39.2 by =32=, =37.6= by 30.6, and 38.2 by =29= millimeters.

_Plumages._--Aside from the alcoholic specimens in the Thayer collection, which are unsuitable for description, I have seen no nestlings of this species. The immature bird is similar to the adult, but the red of the forehead is more restricted, and the red is lacking on the bend of the wing and on the lower thighs. Nothing seems to be known about the length of time that the immature plumage is worn, or about subsequent molts and plumages.

_Food._--The birds observed by R. D. Lusk (1900) “were very busily engaged with the pine cones, and investigation of their stomachs showed nothing but a plentiful quantity of very immature pinones wrested from their cavities in the hearts of the hard, green cones by their powerful beaks. The beaks, at their bases, as well as nearly the entire under parts of the birds, were more or less begummed with the resin of the cones.” The birds reported by Austin Paul Smith (1907) were first noticed when “feeding on pinyon nuts. Some of the birds were on the ground, searching for the fallen nuts.” During their sojourn in Arizona, these parrots have been reported as feeding on pinyon nuts and acorns, after they had exhausted the supply of pine cones.

The stomachs of two birds examined by Cottam and Knappen (1939) contained 136 and 284 or more seeds of the Chihuahua pine (_Pinus chihuahuana_). “The pine seeds were in all stages from entire seeds to a pulverized mast-like débris.”

_Behavior._--All observers seem to agree that the thick-billed parrot is very tame and unsuspicious, probably owing to its unfamiliarity with man.

William Beebe (1905) says: “It is either a very stupid bird or controlled by its curiosity, for the flocks followed us everywhere.”

Dr. Bergtold (1906) writes:

It was a great surprise to see how different is a wild
parrot from a tame one; one must need get an idea from the
latter that a parrot is a slow, lumbering climber, able to
use its wings perhaps, yet little given to prolonged and
vigorous flight. On the contrary, this Thick-billed Parrot
flew across deep barrancas, from mountain to mountain, as
swift and strong on wing as a duck, going often in large
flocks, which were noticeably divided in pairs, each couple
flying one above another as closely as beating wings
allowed. Its loud squawk resounded overhead, across the
barrancas, and in the pines all day long, from dawn till
dusk; and many and many a time a flock could be heard long
before it was in sight. The birds were not at all shy, as
one could walk up under a tree and watch a pair climbing
in it without disturbing them in the least. Here they
seemed natural, at least to one whose previous knowledge
of parrots came via the cage bird, for they climbed about
precisely as does the domesticated species, using bill and
feet in the familiar way; on the wing the birds seemed
anything but parrots.

Dr. Alexander Wetmore (1935) obtained considerable information from reliable observers about the occurrence of this parrot in Arizona and its habits; regarding its movements and behavior, he writes:

According to all accounts Thick-billed Parrots gathered
at night to roost in flocks and then spread out in small
bands to feed during the day. In Pinery Canyon they roosted
somewhere on the upper mountain slopes during summer and
fall. Morning and evening they were seen in two large
flocks. As the weather became colder the roosting place was
changed to one at a lower altitude. In Rucker Canyon the
birds came at night to the mountain side above the site of
old Camp Rucker.

As there were a thousand or more here, their morning and
evening flights were quite impressive. In the Dragoon Range
the parrots roosted somewhere near the head of Cochise
Stronghold and made a morning flight that often carried
them directly out over the plains to the east.

In feeding, the large bands usually broke up into smaller
parties. In winter such flocks at times came down to perch
on broken sandstone ledges where they clambered about or
basked in the sun. In Backer Canyon toward evening flocks
often flew down to the river to drink before passing on to
their roost. In the Chiricahua Mountains during late fall
and winter the birds came down into the foothills to an
altitude of between 5000 and 5500 feet though earlier they
were confined to the higher basins.

The birds were noisy and their coming was heralded by
their loud calls that were said to be readily audible at
a distance of more than a mile. Like parrots elsewhere
they were said to show much fear of hawks (though it seems
strange that a bird with so powerful a bill and so muscular
a body should show such fear); when a red-tail or a hawk
of some other species appeared they rose in flocks and
circled in the air, doubling the volume of their ordinary
screeching calls.

He was told by F. Hands that “as cold weather came during the fall some of the birds disappeared. Others remained during the entire winter, although at one time the ground was covered by six inches of snow for over two weeks and the birds were forced to seek their food on the ground where this covering had blown partly away.”

DISTRIBUTION

_Range._--Southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico (casually) and the mountainous area adjacent to the tableland of Mexico.

The range of the thick-billed parrot extends =north= to (casually) southeastern Arizona (probably near Mowry, Pinery Canyon, Cochise Head, and Paradise); (casually) southwestern New Mexico (Animas Mountain); eastern Chihuahua (Ciudad Chihuahua); and Veracruz (Perote). =East= to Veracruz (Perote and Jalapa). =South= to central Veracruz (Jalapa); Mexico (Popocatapetl); and southern Durango (Canyon Rio San Juan). =West= to Durango (Canyon Rio San Juan, Ciudad Durango, and Arroyo del Buey); western Chihuahua (Guadalupe y Calvo, Jesus Maria, and Colonia Garcia); and southeastern Arizona (Nogales and probably Mowry).

While the range as outlined includes the entire region over which the species is known to occur, it has actually been found breeding only in the Mexican States of Chihuahua and Durango. At irregular intervals flocks that sometimes are of large size travel northward and invade the mountain ranges of southeastern Arizona. Such invasions took place in 1900, 1904, and 1917.

_Egg dates._--Mexico: 10 records, May 10 to August 25; 7 records, August 11 to 25.

Order CUCULIFORMES

Family CUCULIDAE: Cuckoos, Roadrunners, and Anis

CROTOPHAGA ANI Linnaeus

SMOOTH-BILLED ANI

HABITS

This curious member of the cuckoo family is a tropical species of rare, or perhaps only casual, occurrence within the limits of the United States; a few may occur more or less regularly in southern Florida or Louisiana, but to find it in abundance one must visit the West Indies or South America. It has a variety of local names, such as black ani, black witch, blackbird, savanna blackbird, and tickbird, the last from its habit of eating the ticks that infest cattle. Charles B. Taylor sent some interesting notes on this bird to W. E. D. Scott (1892); regarding its haunts in Jamaica, he says:

The Ani appears to be abundant in all parts of the island.
It is one of the commonest birds near Kingston; and in
most open and sparsely wooded lands, or in the vicinity
of cultivated clearings, little groups or companies may
nearly always be seen. Blackbirds are invariably present
wherever cattle are pastured. I cannot recollect an
instance in which I have noted a herd of cows at pasture
without a flock of these birds appearing in company with
them or in their immediate vicinity. This association is
doubtless chiefly for the purpose of feeding on the ticks
and other parasites on the animals, a good work largely
shared by the Grackles (_Quiscalus crassirostris_). It is
most interesting to watch a company of Blackbirds when thus
engaged. Many are perched on the backs of the cattle (two
or three sometimes on one cow), others are on the ground
hopping about fearlessly among the grazing herd, searching
for insects at the roots of the herbage or capturing those
disturbed by the feet of the cattle.

_Nesting._--He says on this subject:

Their nesting habits are exceedingly curious and
interesting. Many individuals (possibly members of one
flock) work together in the construction of a large nest
in which all the females of the company lay their eggs.
The number of eggs deposited in different nests varies
greatly but is of course dependent on the number of birds
in a company. Six and eight eggs are commonly found. I once
took eleven, and in August last year I saw a clutch of
twenty-one that had been taken from a single nest! It is
probable that normally not more than two eggs are deposited
by each bird, but nothing definite can be said on this
point. The nest, which is usually placed high up in a tall
tree, very frequently in a clump of mistletoe on a “bastard
cedar”, is a large, loosely constructed mass of twigs,
entirely lined with dried leaves. But the most remarkable
circumstance in connection with the nesting of these birds
is the deposition of the eggs in _regular layers_ with
leaves between. This custom I had long heard of before an
opportunity offered for personal observation. In the first
nest I examined, the eggs were in two distinct layers,
separated by a deep bed of dry leaves; the bottom layer
consisted of four eggs and these, strange to say, were all
infertile. I believe this singular habit is practised in
all cases where a large number of birds resort to the same
nest.

Dr. Alexander Wetmore (1927) writes:

Although this species often builds a communal nest, this
is not always the case. Near Cayey [Porto Rico], January
22, two anis were seen constructing a nest in a tree about
thirty feet above a small stream, the male sitting on a
limb above while the female was in the nest, as yet only
a loose mass of sticks and weeds. She moved and turned to
shape it to her body, with her long tail sticking nearly
straight up in the air. Near Bayamón, July 25, a single
bird slipped quietly from a bulky nest in a clump of
bamboos and only its mate appeared to join it. The nests
were all large and bulky and were located from six to
thirty feet above the ground. Bowdish reports a communal
nest found near Aguadilla, August 13, built eight feet from
the ground, in a thicket of bushes and trees. This nest
contained twenty eggs, placed in layers of four or five,
each layer being covered with dead leaves to separate it
from the next lot of eggs above. Eight of the eggs were
partly incubated and twelve were fresh.

John G. Wells (1902) says: “A flat nest is first built and about 6 or 7 eggs laid in it; then these are covered over and more eggs laid, and so on until four or five layers of nests have been constructed one over the other.

“I have seen four of these birds sitting on the nest together. When the top layer of eggs is hatched, and the young fledged, it is scraped off and incubation goes on with each succeeding layer, until all the eggs are hatched.”

_Eggs._--On account of its communal nesting habits, the number of eggs laid by each individual ani does not seem to be known; nor is anything known about the period of incubation. The number of eggs found in a nest varies greatly, from 4 or 5 up to 20 or more, depending on the number of females laying in the nest. I have in my collection a set of 18, there is a set of 19 in the Thayer collection, and sets of 20 and 21 are mentioned above.

The eggs vary in shape from oval to elliptical-oval. Bendire (1895) says that the eggs “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 underlying color of some of the eggs that I have seen is “pale Nile blue”; others have described them as green.

The eggs are often very much nest stained. Mr. Taylor (Scott, 1892) makes the following interesting observation regarding the scratches: “What seems very singular is that comparatively little of this chalky covering gets rubbed off the sides, where from the turning over of the eggs in the nest we should expect to see the greatest extent of denudation, whereas _one_ or _both ends_ are nearly always _wholly_ denuded. * * * So cleanly and evenly is it done, and to such an extent, that I feel confident it is the work of the birds themselves, their beaks alone being able to accomplish it. At the same time it is easy to see that the marks and scratches at the sides are the result of friction with the twigs and leaves of the nest.”

The measurements of 63 eggs average 35.03 by 26.27 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =40.4= by 28, 36.5 by =30=, and =29.21= by =23.37= millimeters.

_Young._--Alexander F. Skutch has sent me the following notes on the development of young smooth-billed anis, as observed by him on Barro Colorado Island, Panama: “The newly hatched ani is covered with black skin quite devoid of any trace of feathers. Its eyes are tightly closed. The development of this naked, helpless, little creature is amazingly rapid. By the second day the sheaths of the flight plumes have already begun to sprout. By the third day the eyes are open, and the sheaths of the contour feathers have begun to push out from the skin. The pinfeathers grow rapidly and become very long before they begin to release the true feathers which they enclose. When the young ani is 5 days old, the body feathers peep from the ends of their sheaths. At this age, the nestling could hang by one foot from my finger, and pull itself up by the use of its feet and bill, which was hooked over the support. When placed on the ground, it attempted to crawl away through the grass, and might have succeeded in escaping if I had not watched it carefully. Returned to the nest, it would not remain in the bowl, but climbed out to perch on the rim, where it uttered a little whine.

“When I approached the nest on the following day, the 6-day-old youngster hopped out and began to climb through the thorny branches of the orange tree, but soon it lost its hold and fell to the ground. When I picked it up, it uttered a weak imitation of the parents’ usual call. The flight feathers, as well as the body feathers, were now pushing forth from their sheaths, and the latter were longer than on the preceding day. Much bare skin was, however, still visible between them. On the following morning the nest was empty; and I could not discover what had befallen the occupant.”

_Plumages._--The youngest bird I have seen is about half grown and fully feathered. The contour plumage is soft and short, “bone brown” on the under parts and somewhat darker above; the wings and tail are glossy, purplish black, much like those of the adult; the bill is smaller and less specialized than that of the adult. On account of the extended breeding season, it is difficult to give any definite dates for the molts. I have seen a young male, taken March 7, that was just completing the molt of the wings and tail, but the body plumage was still juvenal; from this I infer that the juvenal plumage may be worn for the whole of the first year. Maynard (1896) took some birds that had just completed molting on March 8; also some that had just begun to molt on April 24. I have seen young birds molting into adult plumage in December.

_Food._--P. H. Gosse (1847) says of the food of the ani in Jamaica:

The food of our Blackbird, though consisting mainly of
insects, is not confined to them. We usually find the
stomach distended with caterpillars, moths, grasshoppers,
beetles, and other insects, to such a degree that we
wonder how the mass could have been forced in. But I
have found these contents mixed up with, and stained by
the berries of the snake-withe; and in July I have found
the stomach crammed with the berries of the fiddle-wood,
(_Cytharaxylon_) which had stained the whole inner surface
a bright crimson. Flocks of these birds were at that time
feeding on the glowing clusters profusely ripe upon the
trees. Stationary insects are the staple food; to obtain
which, they hop about grassy places, and are often seen to
jump, or to run eagerly at their prey; on which occasions
the long tail, continuing the given motion after the body
has stopped, is thrown forward in an odd manner, sometimes
nearly turning the bird head over heels. * * *

One day I noticed a cow lying down, around which were four
or five Blackbirds, hopping on or off her neck, and eagerly
picking the insects from her body; which service seemed in
no wise unpleasing to her. I have also seen them leaping
up on cows when grazing; and, on another occasion, jumping
to and from a horse’s back; and my lad Sam has repeatedly
observed them clinging to a cow’s tail, and picking insects
from it, as far down as the terminal tuft. * * *

But stationary insects are not the only prey of the
Crotophaga; in December, I have seen little groups of
them engaged in the evenings, leaping up from the pasture
about a yard into the air, doubtless after flying insects,
which they seemed to catch. * * * I have seen one with a
dragon-fly in its beak, which it had just caught, but it
may have been while resting. At another time I saw that
a Blackbird had actually made prey of one of our little
nimble lizards (_Anolis_).

Maynard (1896) says that “anis live largely on locusts, especially a large species, which is quite common on the Bahamas, and which has a peculiar, rather disagreeable odor, which is imparted to the birds.” W. E. Clyde Todd (1916) says that, on the Isle of Pines, “it is fond of following in the wake of brush-fires, picking up the roasted lizards, snails, and insects.” Dr. Wetmore (1916) reports that the stomachs of 41 birds from Puerto Rico contained 91.3 percent animal matter, mostly harmful insects and arachnids, including mole crickets, other crickets, locusts, sugar-cane root-borers, leaf beetles, other beetles, squashbugs, other bugs, caterpillars, and spiders; the other 8.7 percent was vegetable matter, mostly seeds and fruits of 7 species of wild plants. He also says elsewhere (1927): “On May 20 near Yauco three anis were seen in a tree in which several mazambiques had nests. The anis were very near these nests, and the blackbirds, together with a pair of gray kingbirds, were much excited, but appeared to be unable to drive out the intruders. It was certain that the anis were bent on robbing the nests, and one was shot in the act of gulping down something which was later found to be an egg. No other instances of this evil habit were observed.”

_Behavior._--Gosse (1847) writes:

Though its usual mode of progression on the ground is
by hopping, or rather bounding, the feet being lifted
together, the Blackbird is seen occasionally to _run_ in
a headlong manner for a short distance, moving the feet
alternately. He is fond of sitting in the morning sun
on a low tree with the wings expanded; remaining there
perfectly still for a considerable time. In the heat of the
day, in July and August, many may be seen in the lowland
plains, sitting on the fences and logwood hedges with the
beaks wide open, as if gasping for air; they then forget
their usual loquacity and wariness. Often two or three
will sit in the centre of a thick bush, overhung with a
matted drapery of convolvolus, whence they utter their
singular cry in a calling tone, as if they were playing at
hide-and-seek, and requiring their fellows to come and find
them.

Several observers have noted that anis roost at night huddled close together on a branch, like domestic fowls, and that they often bunch together in this way during a rain. Dr. Wetmore (1927) writes:

These strange birds are found in flocks that contain from
half a dozen to twenty or more individuals, ranging mainly
in pasture-lands, but going also into the cane-fields and
orange groves to feed. In pastures they remain near the
cattle, keeping ahead of them with long hops, in order to
get the insects that the cattle scare up. Any intruder is
greeted with a querulous call, and the whole flock flies in
a straggling line across the fields to perch in a bush or
low tree, where they crowd together and peer out curiously,
their long tails and arched beaks giving them an odd
appearance. In the early morning, when the grass is wet,
they frequently sit in the sun with the wings extended in
order to dry them or to absorb heat. The wings are small
for the size of the bird, and the flight, accomplished
by a series of steady wing beats alternating with short
sails, is not strong. In a heavy wind the birds are almost
helpless, and they seldom rise high from the ground at any
time. When on the wing, the back appears concave from the
fact that the head and tail are held on a higher level.