332 To the River Plate and Back 



as large as a crow. It is noctural, slumbering all day 

 in dark caves, whence it issues at dusk, going forth in 

 search of its food which consists of the oily fruits of 

 various tropical trees. In quest of this food it travels 

 enormous distances, being very swift of wing; and one 

 writer, who studied its habits, states that he found in 

 the stomach of a specimen which he obtained at Caripe a 



Fig. 31 Guacharo (Steatornis steatornis] \ nat. size. 



nut of a tree which he was quite sure does not grow 

 nearer the cavern than eighty leagues, or two hundred 

 and forty miles away. The indigestible seeds are 

 voided upon the floor of the caves in which these birds 

 congregate, and here they sprout up, and being de- 

 prived of light, cover the floor of the cave with a curious 

 mass of bleached vegetation like the shoots of potatoes 

 which have sprouted in a cellar. The young birds soon 

 after they are hatched become a mass of animate fat; 

 at this time the Indians resort to the caves and slaughter 

 the young by the thousands, melt the fat in pots at the 

 mouth of the cavern, and preserve it for use both in 

 cooking and in lighting lamps. This fat is said not to 



