Likely a corrupted or repeated form; potentially referring to repeated or mutual instances of the anting behavior among birds, though this exact term is not standard in ornithology.
From anting + anting (a doubling of the term). This appears to be either a transcription error or a highly specialized ornithological term for repeated or social anting behavior.
This word might be what happens when scientific terms get copied—sometimes in older field guides, words got repeated by accident during printing or transcription, creating 'words' that sound funny but aren't really used.
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