THE NIGHTJARS 



1811 



described as being more extraordinary than that of any other bird. Waterton, for 

 instance, writes that, ' ' a goatsucker inhabits Demerara, about the size of an Eng- 

 lish wood owl, whose voice is so remarkable that, when once heard, it is not easily 

 forgotten. A stranger would never believe it to be the cry of a bird, but 

 would say it was the departing voice of a midnight murdered victim, or the last 

 wailing of poor Niobe for her children, before she was turned to stone. Suppose a 

 person in hopeless sorrow, beginning with a high loud note Ha ha! ha ha! ha! 

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





GREAT WOOD NIGHTJAR. 

 (One-third natural size.) 



two between each exclamation, and you will have some idea of the moaning of the 

 great goatsucker of Demerara." Mr. Stolzmann, too, states that in Peru the great 

 wood nightjar (Nydibius grandis} has a curious habit of perching upon dead 

 branches, so as to look like a knot or prolongation of the bough, so that it takes 

 an experienced eye to detect them. " Its cry," he writes, "is one of the most ex- 

 traordinary of any bird I know, and consists of five notes, descending gradually 

 one-fifth in the scale, and producing an uncanny impression during moonlight 

 nights." 



