396 GUAN 



of them for a time vegetate, the plants thus growing being etiolated 

 from want of light, and, according to travellers, forming a singular 

 feature of the gloomy scene which these places present. The 

 Guacharo is said to build a bowl-like nest of clay, in which it lays 

 from two to four white eggs, with a smooth but lustreless surface, 

 resembling those of some Owls. The young soon after they are 

 hatched become a perfect mass of fat, and while yet in the nest are 

 sought by the Indians, who at Carip6, and perhaps elsewheie, make 

 a special business of taking them and extracting the oil they con- 

 tain. This is done about midsummer, when by the aid of torches 

 and long poles many thousands of the young birds are slaughtered, 

 while their parents in alarm and rage hover over the destroyers' 

 heads, uttering harsh and deafening cries. The grease is melted 

 over fires kindled at the cavern's mouth, run into earthen pots, and 

 preserved for use in cooking as well as for the lighting of lamps. 

 It is said to be pure and limpid, free from any disagreeable taste or 

 smell, and capable of being kept for a year without turning rancid. 

 In Trinidad the young are esteemed a great delicacy for the table 

 by many, though some persons object to their peculiar scent, which, 

 says L^otaud {Oi&. de la Trinidad, p. 68), resembles that of a cock- 

 roach (Blatta), and consequently refuse to eat them. The old birds 

 also, according to Mr. E. C. Taylor (Ibis, 1864, p. 90) have a strong 

 CroAv-like odour. But one species of the genus Steatornis is known. ^ 



GUAN, a word apparently first introduced into the ornithologist's 

 vocabulary about 1743 by Edwards,- who said 

 that a bird he figured (Nat. Hist. pi. xiii.) Avas 

 " so called in the AVest Indies," and the name has 

 hence been generally applied to all the members 

 of the subfamily Penelopinm, which are distin- 

 guished from the kindred subfamily Cracinx or 

 ../^o^'^"^^" ^ CURASSOWS by the broad postacetabular area of 



(After fewamson.) . ,. '^. , i-tiptti / r, 



the pelvis, as pointed out by rrot. Huxley (rroc. 

 Zool. Soc. 1868, p. 297), as well as by their maxilla being wider than 



^ In addition to the works above quoted valuable information about this 

 curious bird may be found under tlie following references : — L'Herminier, Ann. 

 Sc. Nat. 1836, p. 60, and Nouv. Ann. Mus. 1838, p. 321 ; Hautessier, Rev. Zool. 

 1838, p. 164; J, Miiller, Monatsh. Berl. Acad. 1841, p. 172, and Archiv fiir 

 Anat. 1862, pp. 1-11 ; Des Murs, liev. Zool. 1843, p. 32, and Ool. Orn. pp. 

 260-263 ; Blanchard, Ann. Mus. 1859, xi. pi. 4, fig. 30 ; Konig-Warthausen, 

 Jo^crn. fiir Orn. 1868, pp. 384-387 ; Goering, Vargasia, 1869, pp. 124-128 ; 

 Murie, Ibis, 1873, pp. 81-86 ; Sclater, Ibis, 1890, pp. 335-339. 



^ Edwards also gives " Quau " as an alternative spelling, and this maybe 

 nearer the original form, since we find Dampier in 1676 writing [Voy. ii. pt. 2, 

 p. 66) of what was doubtless an allied if not the same bird as the "Quam." 

 The species represented by Edwards (Laes not seem to have been identified by the 

 latest authorities. cJ- , C (T\\,.^ ^ tliX 



