FAMILY NYCTIBIIDAE I93 



Resident. Found locally in forested areas in the lowlands and lower 

 hills through the Republic on both Caribbean and Pacific slopes. Not 

 recorded to date from the eastern side of the Azuero Peninsula in 

 Herrera and Los Santos. 



Though widely distributed in tropical America, these curious birds 

 are so strictly nocturnal in their activities that their presence is known 

 mainly through their strange calls. These come from the forest at 

 night, most regularly when there is moonlight. A common utterance 

 is a loud note of several syllables, uttered slowly in falling cadence, 

 that near at hand to the human ear may seem an expression of melan- 

 choly and despair, but at a distance is truly musical. The usual call is 

 of four to six syllables, descending in scale, sounds that carry for a 

 long distance. It is easily imitated by a whistle, when the bird may 

 answer. Another utterance is a somewhat guttural cwuh ca-wuh-h-h 

 that at a little distance suggests the call of an owl. 



During the day the urutaii rests quietly on a shaded perch, often a 

 knob on the vertical trunk of a tree, or the broken end of a small stub. 

 Here it sits with the tail straight down, bill pointed up, and eyes 

 closed to a slit, so that with its mottled colors and curious position it 

 resembles a woody continuation of the tree trunk. It is found daily on 

 the same chosen resting place. At nightfall it moves to a commanding 

 outlook from which it sallies to capture insects that pass, and then 

 returns to its perch. A favorite lookout is on a stub on the bank of a 

 river where the bird has open view. Large beetles, orthoptera, and 

 occasionally moths of medium size or larger are the usual prey. The 

 open mouth, 50 mm. or more across, with short, stiff bristles project- 

 ing from the outer sides of the upper half of the bill forms a capacious 

 scoop for these captures. The stomach walls are only slightly muscular 

 so that it has been my supposition that the indigestible chitin of legs, 

 wings, and body must be regurgitated in pellet form. The masses 

 present in those that I have examined seem too large and rough to 

 pass through the rather narrow tube of the intestine. 



In night-hunting I have noted that the eyes glow deep red near at 

 hand, orange or even yellow from afar. They show clearly at a con- 

 siderable distance because of their size. 



The tarsus in these birds is remarkably short, while the toes are 

 strong. Occasionally they may perch across a small branch in the posi- 

 tion normal to perching birds, but do not rest lengthwise of a limb in 

 the manner usual in the true goatsuckers. In nesting the single egg is 

 placed in a slight depression on a knob or stub, one deep enough to 

 be secure. The bird in incubation rests in front, with the feathers of 



