GREAT POTOO 



the voice of 'the largest Goatsucker in Demer- 

 ara' to the wailing of Niobe for her poor children 

 before she was turned to stone. ..." Brewster 

 and Chapman. Notes on Birds observed in 

 Trinidad, Auk, XII, No. 3, July, 1895, p. 210. 



2. Nyctibius grandis (Gmelin) 

 Great Potoo 



Sexes alike. Length, about 500 mm. (19.50 



in.); tail, 260 mm. (10.25 in.). Ground color of 

 plumage mixed white and buffy in various pro- 

 portions barred, marbled or vermiculated with 

 dusky; wing quills blackish with narrow grayish 

 bars and spots; tail marbled with gray (some- 

 times suffused with buff or pale rusty), and 

 dusky, the markings forming many more or less 

 interrupted transverse bars. On the breast the 

 dark markings fuse into irregular spots or 

 blotches. 



On Barro Colorado in April from sundown 

 through the early evening there issued from the 

 depths of the jungle a resonant deep-toned 

 pootoo, pootoo, pootoo, interminably repeated, 

 which is said to be the call of this bird, and is 

 truly an extraordinary, unforgettable sound. 



37. Family CYPSELID^E 

 The Swifts 



A moderately large family of insectivorous 

 birds remarkable for their very long narrow 

 wings and extraordinary powers of flight. 



