20trtt0n-m> of gftumatrtr $atttre. 289 



of the cocks. This is answered by another ; 

 and they presently come forth one by one 

 from the bushes, strutting about with all 

 the pride and ostentation they can display. 

 Their necks are incurvated ; the feathers on 

 them are erected into a sort of ruff ; the 



i plumes of their tails are expanded like fans ; 



j they strut about in a style resembling the 

 pomp of the turkey-cock. They seem to vie 



I with each other ui state! iness ; and, as they 



I pass each other, frequently cast looks of in- 

 sult, and utter notes of defiance. These are 

 the signals for battles. They engage with 

 wonderful spirit and fierceness ; and during 

 their contests, they leap a foot or two from 

 the ground, and utter a cackling, screaming, 

 and discordant cry. These places of ex- 

 hibition have been often discovered by the 

 hunters ; and a fatal discovery it has been 

 for the poor Grouse. Their destroyers con- 

 struct for themselves lurking holes made of 

 pine branches, called " bough houses," within 

 a few yards of the spot. Hither they repair 

 with their fowling-pieces, in the latter part 

 of the night, and wait the appearance of 

 the birds. Watching the moment when 

 two are proudly eyeing each other, or en- 

 gaged in battle, or when a greater number 

 can be seen in a range, they pour on them a 

 destructive charge of shot. They com- 

 monly keep together in coveys of ten or a 

 dozen, or packs, as the phrase is, until, the 

 pairing season : and it has been remarked, 

 that when a company of sportsmen have 

 surrounded a pack of Grouse, the birds 

 seldom or never rise upon their pinions 

 while they are encircled ; but each runs 

 along till it has passed the person that is 

 nearest, and then nutters ff with the utmost 

 expedition The inieresting facts contained 

 in the foregoing account are derived from 

 the inimitable " American Ornithology " by 

 Alex. Wilson. 



GRUB. A name applied more especially 

 to the hexapod worms or maggots hatched 

 from the eggs of beetles. 



GRUTD^E. The name of the family of 

 wading birds represented by the Crane. 



GRTJS. A genus of Grallatorial birds 

 belonging to the family Gruula:. [See 

 CKAXE.] 



GRYLLID^E. The second family be- 

 longing to the Saltatorinl Orthoptcra; con- 

 taining the Field and House Cricket. [See 

 CRICKET.] 



GUACHARO BIRD. (Steatornis Caripen- 

 *?.) A bird of South America, belonging 

 to the family of Gaotsuckers ( Cavrimulffidce), 

 relative to the locality and habits of which a 

 most interesting account is given by Baron 

 Humbo_ldt, in his "Personal Narrative." 

 This bird is of the size of a common fowl ; 

 the plumage sombre, brownish-grey, mixed 

 with small striae and black dots ; large white 

 heart-shaped spots bordered with black on 

 the head, and on the wing and tail feathers ; 

 but no spots on the back : the bill is horny, 

 wide, and long ; the upper mandible hooked ; 

 and the base is furnished with stiff hairs, 

 directed forwards. 



The following narrative is derived, in a 

 somewhat abridged form, from an article by 

 the talented author of Zoological Recrea- 

 tions. "When they (Humboldt and his 

 party) arrived at the foot of the lofty moun- 

 tain of Guacharo, they were only four hun- 

 dred paces from the cavern, without yet 

 perceiving the entrance. The torrent runs 

 in a hollow excavated by the waters ; and 

 they went on under a ledge or cornice, the 

 projection of which prevented them from 

 seeing the sky. The path winds like the 

 river, and, at the last turning, they sud- 

 denly stood before the immense opening 

 of the cave. The (Jucva del Guacharo is 

 pierced in the vertical profile of a rock, and 

 the entrance is towards the south, forming a 

 vault eighty feet broad and seventy-two feet 

 high, an elevation but a fifth less than that 



8TEATORN18 CARIPKUSI8.) 



of the Louvre. The rock surmounting the 

 cavern was covered with trees of gigantic 

 height, and all the luxuriant profusion of 

 an intertropical vegetation. The travellers 

 saw with astonishment plantain-leaved he- 

 liconias eighteen feet in height, the praga 

 palm, and tree arums, follow the banks of 

 the river, even to the subterranean places. 

 There the vegetation continues, as in the 

 deep crevices of the Andes, half shut out 

 from the light of day, nor does it disappear 

 till a distance of thirty or forty paces from 

 the entrance. The party went forward for 

 about four hundred and thirty feet without 

 being obliged to light their torches. Where 

 the light began to fail, they heard from afar 

 the hoarse cries of the Guacharo birds. 

 These birds quit the cavern only at night- 

 fall, especially when there is moonlight ; 

 and Humboldt remarks that it is almost the 

 only frugivorous nocturnal bird yet known. 

 It feeds on very hard fruits, and the Indians 

 assured him that it does not pursue either 

 the lamellicorn insects or those phalamce 

 which serve as food to the goatsuckers. He 

 states that it is difficult to form an idea of 

 the horrible noise made by thousands of 

 these birds in the dark recesses of the cavern, 

 whence their shrill and piercing cries strike 

 upon the vaulted rocks, and are repeated by 

 the echo in the depths of the grotto. By 

 fixing torches of copal to the end of a long 



