ANTING BY BIRDS 121
there are about 2,000 species of ants, yet anting appears to be a
very rare occurrence.
We have learned something of this new avian habit in Aus-
tralia so we will go to America to ascertain what has been dis-
covered in that vast and varied continent. When W. L. McAtee
wrote on "Anting by Birds" in 1938 (The Auk, pp. 98-105), he
had never observed the birds doing it, so he used the following
account by Mr. E. R. Kalmbach. At Washington, D.C., about
3 p.m. on November 11th, 1935, Kalmbach saw a small party of
Starlings feeding on the lawn to the east of the U.S. National
Museum. Two to four birds were picking up small objects
from an area about two feet in diameter and, standing rather
erect, appeared to place them beneath their slightly raised wings.
The actions of the birds were rapid and there was no indication
of preening. The tip of the bill was placed sometimes on one
side and sometimes on the other, at a point near the posterior
edge of the secondaries, but the observer could not detect whether
the objects were being deposited on the wing itself or among the
feathers on the sides of the rump. He watched the performance
for three or four minutes and then examined the area and found
an active colony of ants, Lasius interjectus Mayr. Later, Mr.
McAtee obtained the desired experience himself. At McLean,
Virginia, on August 4th, 1943, he saw a male Red-eyed Towhee
very busy picking objects from the ground and making passes with
the beak both over and under the wings. The latter were held
raised and arched and the feathers in general were fluffed so that
the Towhee presented a peculiar, disjointed and unbirdlike
appearance. The performance lasted several minutes and on
examination of the site ants were found running in all directions;
they were Lasius niger var. americanus.
H. R. Ivor (The Auk, 1943, pp. 51-5) carried out experiments
in his aviary with 73 birds of nine families and 31 species. Ants
were introduced into the aviary and it was found that 20 species
anted, 10 did not do so but ate the ants, and one species did
neither.
The following is an example from another continent—Asia.
N. G. Pillai (Journ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc, 1941, p. 935) gives
an account of his own experiences at the Museum, Trivan-
drum, India. On December 14th, 1940, he observed a pair of
Common Mynahs (Acridotheres tristis) hopping about in the
midst of a colony of Red Ants (Oecophylla smaragdina), picking
them up in their beaks one after the other, rubbing them against
the under parts of their wings and tail, and finally dropping them;
this lasted for about three minutes. A number of ants were
strewn about dead and dying, their abdomens were crushed and
they were reeking of formic acid. There are further similar