- 



290 



(Ercas'ur|) of Natural 



pole, the Indians showed the nests of these [ them by their parents : these are preserved, 

 birds fifty or sixty feet above the heads of I and, under the name of semiUu del Guacharo 



the explorers, in funnel-shaped holes, with 

 which the cavern roof is pierced like a sieve. 

 " Once a year, near midsummer, the Gua- 

 charo cavern is entered by the Indians. 

 Armed with poles, they ransack the greater 

 part of the nests, while the old birds hover 

 over the heads of the robbers, as if to defend 

 their brood, uttering horrible cries. The 

 young which fall down are opened on the 

 spot. The peritoneum is found loaded with 



(Guacharo seed), are considered a celebrated 

 remedy against intermittent fevers, and sent 

 to the sick at Cariaco and other low locali- 

 ties where fever prevails. The Cueru del 

 Guacharo is situated nearly in lat. 10 1(K, 

 and consequently in the centre of the torrid 

 zone." 



GUAN. A genus of Gallinaceous birds 

 found in the New World. [See PJSNELOPE.] 



fat, and a layer of the same substance reaches I GTJANA. The name given to several 

 from the abdomen to the vent, forming a I species of Lizards (lyuana). The best known 



kind of cushion between the bird's legs, 

 Humboldt here remarks, that this quantity 



pecies (Iguana tubcrculata) is found in 

 many parts of America and the West 



of fat in frugivorous animals, not exposed | India islands. It inhabits rocky and woody 

 to the light, and exerting but little muscular j places ; feeds on insects and vegetables ; and 

 motion, brings to mind what has been long j is often seen of the length of from three to 

 observed in the fattening of geese and oxen, even five feet : its general colour is green, 

 It is well known, he adds, how favourable shaded with brown : the back is strongly 

 darkness and repose are to this process. At 

 the period above mentioned, which is gene- 

 rally known at Caripe by the designation of 

 ' the oil harvest,' huts are built by the In- 

 dians, with palm leaves, near the entrance, 

 and even in the very porch of the cavern. 

 There the fat of the young birds just killed 

 is melted in clay pots over a brushwood fire ; 



serrated ; and this, witli its large gular 

 pouch, which it has the power of inflating 

 to a great degree, gives a formidable appear- 

 ance to an animal otherwise harmless. We 

 learn from Catesby that these reptiles are of 

 various sizes, from two to five feet in length ; 

 that their mouths are furnished with exceed- 



ing small teeth, but thei 



are armed 



and this fat is named butter or oil of the j with a long beak, with which they bite with 

 Guacharo. It is half liquid, transparent, 

 inodorous, and so pure that it will keep 

 above a year without turning rancid. Hum- 

 boldt observes that the race of Guacharo 

 birds would have been extinct long since if 

 several circumstances had not contributed 

 to its preservation. The natives, withheld 



r in 



tich 



great strength : and that they inhabit warm 

 countries only. Many of the Bahama 

 islands abound with them, where they nestle 

 in hollow rocks and trees. Their eggs have 

 not a hard shell, like those of alligators, but 

 a skin only, like those of a turtle ; and are 

 esteemed a good food : they lay a great 



by superstitious fears, seldom dare to pro- I number of eggs at a time, in the earth, 

 ceed far into the recesses of the cavern, i which are there hatched by the sun's heat. 

 Humboldt had great difficulty in persuading These Guanas are a great part of the sub- 

 them to pass beyond the outer part of the j sistence of the inhabitants of the Bahama 

 cave, the only portion of it which they visit > islands, for which purpose they visit many 

 annually to collect the oil ; and the whole : of the remote Kayes and islands in their 

 authority of the Padres was necessary to , sloops to catch them, which they do by dogs 

 make them penetrate as far as the spot ! trained up for that purpose. Their flesh is 

 where the floor rises abruptly at an incliua- j easy of digestion, delicate, and well-tasted : 

 tion of sixty degrees, and where a small they are sometimes roasted, but the more 

 subterraneous cascade is formed by the tor- ! common way is to boil them, taking out the 

 rent. In the minds of the Indians this cave, | leaves of fat, which are melted and clarified, 

 inhabited by nocturnal birds, is associated and put into a calabash or dish, into which 

 with mystic ideas, and they believe that in | they dip the flesh of the Guana as they eat 

 the deep recesses of the cavern the souls of i it. Though they are not amphibious, they 

 their ancestors sojourn. They say that man '. are said to keep under water above an hour, 

 should avoid places that are enlightened Their pace on land is slow ; and when they 



go 

 the 



these perhaps the great 

 for the missionaries dec 



neither by the sun nor the moon ; and ' to 



and join the Guacharoes ' means to rejoin 



sir fathers in short, to die. At the en- 

 trance of the cave the magicians and 

 poisoners perform their exorcisms to conjure 

 the chief of the evil spirits. It appears also, 

 as another cause of preservation, that Gua- 

 charo birds inhabit neighbouring caverns 

 too narrow to be accessible to man, and from 

 cavern is repeopled ; 

 ies declared that no sensible 

 diminution of the birds had been observed. 

 Young birds of this species have been sent 

 to the port of Cumana, and have lived there 



several days, but without taking any food ; j scales are small ; the tail is "forked ; and 

 the seeds offered to them not suiting them. | both that and the dorsal fin are spotted with 

 The crops and gizzards of the young birds | black : the upper jaw is longer than the ! 

 opened in the cavern contain all sorts of | lower ; and furnished with short cirri. Qud- 

 hard and dry fruits, which are conveyed to geons appear to delight in slow rivers : they 



swim, they do not use their feet, but merely 

 guide themselves with their tails. They 

 are so impatient of cold, that they rarely 

 appear out of their holes but when the sun 

 shines. 



GUANACO. The local name of a variety 

 of species of the Llama [which see], 



GUDGEON. (Cyprinus gobio.) A small 

 Malacopterygious fresh-water fish, generally 

 about five or six inches in length and of a sub- 

 cylindrical shape; its usual colour is a pale 

 olive brown above, spotted with black ; 

 the sides silvery, and the belly white ; the 



