OIL-BIRDSFROG-MO UTHS* 



333 



set in, and while still the west is lit up by the setting sun, the Guacharos come 

 out of their caves and fly over the forests at a considerable height, their move- 

 ments being very much like those of Nightjars, but they never utter any 

 note. They feed later on in the darkness on the fruits of Nectandra 

 trees, and those fruits they seize while in full flight." The stones of 

 the fruit are afterwards rejected, and Dr. Bevan Rake found large 

 quantities of such stones on the floor of the caves in Trinidad, which ho 

 visited in order to procure some nests and young birds. The eggs are two 

 in number, as a rule, but three and even four have been found ; as 

 before recorded, they are white. The nest is a round pile, about a 

 foot in height, and a little more in diameter, looking like a mass of 

 grey clay in the form of a cheese, and when the young are about a 

 fortnight old, they become very fat, so much so that the birds appear 

 as if entirely hidden under a thick layer of yellow grease. It is from 

 this peculiar development of its young that the Guacharo gets its 

 name of "Oil-Bird." The Indians are in the habit of visiting the 

 caves at the time when the young are sufficiently grown, and of killing 

 the latter by hundreds, melting down the fat into earthern jars, and 

 this fat is known by the name of guacharo-butter. Stolzmann says 

 that the note of the Guacharo is very disagreeable, being a loud 

 cri-cri-coori ? 



These thick-headed birds, with their soft owl-like plumage, might well 

 pass for relations of the Striges, and, like the latter birds, they are strictly 

 nocturnal in their habits. They are oriental in habitat, 

 being found only in the Indian and Australian regions. 

 The palate is desmognathous or bridged, and the absence 

 of any pectination or comb-like process on the claw of the 

 middle toe, shows that they are not very closely allied to 

 the Nightjars, notwithstanding their external resemblance. The Podargi 

 contain but one family, with two sub-families, Podargince and ^Egothelina. 

 In the first-named powder-down patches are present, 

 and the nostrils are linear and hidden by bristles, 

 while in the ^Egothelince there are no powder-downs, 

 and the nostrils are open and exposed. 



The sub-family Podargince contains but two genera, 

 Podargus and Batrachostomus. 



The Frog-mouths are birds of mottled plumage, 

 the genus Podargus being confined to Australia and 

 the Papuan Islands. Of the habits of the Tawny- 

 shouldered Frog-mouth (Podargus strigoides), Gould 

 gives the following account : ** Like the rest of the 

 genus, this species is strictly nocturnal, sleeping 

 throughout the day on the dead branch of a tree, in 

 an upright position across, and never parallel to, the 

 branch, which it so nearly resembles as scarcely 

 to be distinguishable from it. I have occasionally 

 seen ifc beneath the thick foliage of the Casuarince, 

 and I have been informed that it sometimes shelters 

 itself in the hollow trunks of the Eucalypti, but I 

 never could detect one in such a situation. I mostly found them in pairs, 

 perched near each other on the branches of the gums, in situations not at 

 all sheltered from the beams of the mid-day sun. So lethargic are its 



The Frog-Mouths. 

 Sub-order 



Podargi. 



Fig. 69. THE TAWNY- 

 SHOULDERED FROG-MOUTH 

 (Podargus strigoides). 



