^"'gg^^J Brewster and Chapman on Trinidad Birds. 2OQ 



ward from the forest, we saw a large bird, which we at first 

 supposed was an Owl, sitting on the top of a stub about thirty 

 feet in height. We had no difficulty in identifying this bird as a 

 Nydibius and congratulated ourselves on the knowledge that it 

 was probably resident so near our house. For the four succeed- 

 ing evenings doubtless the same bird appeared about half an 

 hour after sunset and on set wings sailed slowly and majestically 

 from a point of the forest distant some two hundred yards, until 

 directly above the stub upon which we had first seen him. After 

 descending in a broad spiral, which ended a few feet below his 

 perch, he pitched sharply upward, closing his wings as he secured 

 a footing. His position was upright and he seemed a continua- 

 tion of the stub, against which his tail was pressed. He invari- 

 ably faced the west but kept his head turning from side to side 

 after the manner of Flycatchers. At short, irregular intervals — 

 usually two or three times a minute — he launched out after insects, 

 flying in a perfectly straight, slightly ascending line with firm and 

 vigorous, yet easy wing-beats, his tail wide-spread. At the 

 moment he reached his prey he often turned abruptly to secure 

 it, then wheeled suddenly, and returned to the stub by a long, 

 slow, graceful glide and lit as before described. With few excep- 

 tions his sallies were made toward the west, evidently because of 

 the background afforded by the after glow, and he often flew 

 thirty or forty yards before reaching his object. 



Interesting as it was to observe a Goatsucker in the r6le of 

 a hawk-like Flycatcher, the certainty of our identification made us 

 earnestly wish to hear the bird call, when the identity of Poor-me- 

 one and Nydibius could be instantly settled. But each night the 

 bird returned to the forest in silence. 



March 20 the moon was full and shortly after eight o'clock, to 

 our great delight, we heard Poor-me-one calling from the forest. 

 We at once started in the direction of the sound. Crossing a belt 

 of cacao, leaping some of the drains, stumbling into others, wading 

 knee-deep through the dew-drenched grass, breathless and per- 

 spiring, we came at length to the edge of a low, swampy woods 

 whence issued the strange cry. The bird now became silent. We 

 listened anxiously for several minutes and were greeted only by 

 the awk-er-ree-coo and startling scream of an Owl {Mcgascops brasi- 



