FAMILY STEATORNITHIDAE 



i8 7 



285-335 (306.6), tail 181-207 (195.6), culmen from base 31.4-36.1 

 (33.8), tarsus 17.5-20.0 (18.6) mm. 



Females (10 from Darien, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, and Trini- 

 dad), wing 286-313 (300.6), tail 176-201 (189.0), culmen from base 

 30.1-33.4 (32.0), tarsus 17.4-20.0 (18.8) mm. 



Wing and tail are subject to much abrasion from the rough ledges 

 of the caverns in which these birds live. 



Figure 30. — Oilbird, guacharo, Steatornis caripensis. 



Status uncertain. Known in Darien from a single specimen. 



During the night of March 19, 1959, Bernard Feinstein caught a 

 guacharo in a mist net set for bats across the Rio Tacarcuna at 580 

 meters elevation on the approach to Cerro Mali, Darien. This speci- 

 men, preserved at the time in formaldehyde and prepared as a skin at 

 the U. S. National Museum a few months later, is a male, an individual 

 fully grown, but evidently in its first year, from the color of the tail. 

 The primaries are slightly worn at the tip, so that the bird had been 

 for some time on the wing. 



As the species is recorded from western Colombia it may have come 

 from that area. 



Oilbirds are reported to eat the fruits of several palms, and also of 

 species of the families Lauraceae, Burseraceae, and Araliaceae. They 

 nest in groups in caves, and return to rest in such sheltered quarters, 



