1922.] TRINIDAD BIRDS. 169 



While we were at the cave there was a man there collecting the 

 young birds from the nests. It is a disgraceful proceeding in addition 

 to being contrary to the law. A long pole with, at the upper end, a 

 torch and a long hook bent downwards is the weapon used. The 

 upper nests are scraped with the end of this hook. until something 

 falls out. It may be an egg, (for the man cannot see what is in the 

 nest) in which case it falls to the ground and breaks. It may be too 

 old a bird, for only the very young are of value, in which case it is left 

 to die. If however fortune favours the collector it is a nice plump 

 youngster and then with a smile of pleasure he drops it into his bag, 

 later to be boiled down to oil. 



The adult birds make several different noises including a sharp 

 kek-kek when annoyed and a sound that can only be likened to some- 

 one being sick. If it were not that the word " Guacharo " was used 

 in Spanish for other birds it might be taken, when said suddenly and 

 hoarsely, to represent the sound that they make. 



The next best known nesting locality is a large cave in the 

 Heights of Aripo, but I have not been able to visit it and have no 

 particulars beyond the statement that it is the largest colony in the 

 Island. It has been visited on several occasions by Mr. E. Andre 

 but so far as I am aware no account of it has ever been published. 



Another colony is in a large cave facing the sea on the Island of 

 Huevos. This cave can only be visited on a calm day and 1 have 

 made two attempts to reach it without success. F. M. Chapman 

 visited this and the next locality on May 5, 1893 and according to his 

 account (Bull. Am. Mm. Nat. Hist. 1894 60) it contained about 

 200 birds one of which was laying on this dat# 



There is an account of a visit to this cave by Mr. W. I. Hornaday 

 in the Standard Natural History IV, Birds, p. 386, but no date is 

 given. He states " We set off early one morning when the sea was 

 calmest, pulled westward along the south shore of Monos, then out 

 through the Huevos passage into the open sea. Half an hour s pull 

 along the precipitous side of Huevos Island brought us to a tiny bay 

 hemmed in by the same wall of rock. A turn to the left round some 

 half sunken rocks and we were at the entrance of the cave, a black 

 semicircular hole at the base of a cliff, six feet high and twelve feet 

 wide, into which the swells of the sea dashed at every moment. 



" The oarsmen held the boat carefully in position until a big wave 

 came rolling in, when they sent the boat flying in on its crest. We 

 passed safely over the sunken rocks, and the next roller, which lifted 

 the boat so high that we had to crouch down in order that our heads 

 might escape from the roof of the tunnel, brought us to terra firma. 



