FIELD NATURALISTS' CLUB. 271 



imitation of the cry of Poor-me-one. Almost instantly an answer 

 came from the woods and soon a large Goatsucker, which we at 

 once recognized as the species we had seen on the stub, came 

 sailing directly over us. He circled twice, uttered a low call, and 

 alighted on the topmost twig of a bois immortel distant twenty 

 yards. A moment later, puffing out his throat, he uttered the 

 Poor-me-one call. AVe suppressed our exultation with difficulty. 



After calling a dozen or more times the bird returned to the 

 woods, but several times returned in response to our imitation of 

 its notes. Usually he perched on the topmost, slender twigs of 

 a bois immortel, the last situation one would expect a Goatsucker 

 to select. 



The locality was not far from the stub upon which we had 

 originally discovered Nyctibius, and we had little doubt that the 

 individual seen there was the one we had heard calling. Indeed, 

 one hour later this bird, which we easily recognized by a peculi- 

 arity in its call, came to the vicinity of the stub in response to 

 Mr. Carr's whistle. Here he was joined by his mate, both birds 

 perching in the topmost branches of the forest trees. 



The song of Poor-me-one consists of eight notes, which Mr. 

 Carr, izi an article 1 on this species, writes : — 



-f?S 1 



^ 



At a distance of half a mile only three of these may be 

 heard, and all are not audible until one is quite near the singer. 

 The inexpressibly sad, human quality of Poor-me-one's call affects 

 ever}' one who hears it. Waterton, we have no doubt, refers to 

 this bird when he compares the voice of " the largest Goatsucker 

 in Demerara " to " the last wailing of Niobe for her poor children, 

 before she was turned into stone," and, in describing the call, 

 writes : " Suppose youi'self in hopeless sorrow, begin with a high, 

 loud note, and pronounce ' ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,' each note 

 lower and lower, till the last is scarcely heard, pausing a moment 

 or two twixt every note. ..." 



Gosse, 1 on the contrary, in his excellent account of the habits 

 of this species, describes its call as a " loud and hoarse ho-hoo," 

 and adds : " Sometimes the same syllables are heard, in a much 

 lower tone, as if proceeding from the depth of the throat." The 



1 Journal Trinidad Field Naturalists' Club, II, Dec. 1894, P- J 37- 

 l Birds of Jamaica, p. 42. 



