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 bowllike 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 Caripé, and perhaps elsewhere, 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 Léotaud (Ois. 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 (Zbis, 1864, p. 90) have a strong 
Crow-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. pl. xiii.) was 
“so called in the West Indies,” and the name has 
hence been generally applied to all the members 
of the subfamily Penelopine, which are distin- 
guished from the kindred subfamily Cracinx or 
( ore eae Curassows by the broad postacetabular area of 
2 ainson.) : . 
the pelvis, as pointed out by Prof. Huxley (Proc. 
Zool. Soc. 1868, p. 297), as well as by their maxilla being wider than 
1 In addition to the works above quoted valuable information about this 
curious bird may be found under the following references :—L’Herminier, Ann. 
Se. Nat. 1836, p. 60, and Nouv. Ann. Mus. 1838, p. 321; Hautessier, Rev. Zool. 
1838, p. 14; J. Miiller, Monatsh. Berl. Acad. 1841, p. 172, and Archiv fir 
Anat. 1862, pp. 1-11; Des Murs, Rev. Zool. 1848, p. 32, and Ool. Orn. pp. 
260-263 ; Blanchard, Ann. Mus. 1859, xi. pl. 4, fig. 30; Konig-Warthausen, 
Journ. fiir Orn. 1868, pp. 384-387 ; Goering, Vargasia, 1869, pp. 124-128 ; 
Murie, Jbis, 1873, pp. 81-86 ; Sclater, Zbis, 1890, pp. 335-339. 
* Edwards also gives ‘‘Quan” as an alternative spelling, and this may be 
nearer the original form, since we find Dampier in 1676 writing (Voy. il. pt. 2, 
p. 66) of what was doubtless an allied if not the same bird as the ‘‘Quam.” 
The species represented by Edwards does not seem to have been identified by the 
latest authorities. (Mr. 0. GranT makes ft quan o€ Edwards To be Renclope exist, ata.) 
