THE GOATSUCKER. 35(5 



gestures during the time, you would conclude that he enjoys 

 the sport. 



Wild and strange are the voices of many of the American 

 forest-birds. In the Peruvian woods the black Toropishu 

 {Cephalopterus ornatus) makes the thicket resound with his 

 hoarse cry, resembling the distant lowing of a bull ; and in the 

 same regions the fiery-red and black-winged Tunqui (Rupicola 

 Peruviana) sends forth a note, which might readily be mis- 

 taken for the grunting of a hog, and strangely contrasts with 

 the brilliancy of his plumage. But of all the startling cries 

 that issue from the depths of the forest, none is more remark- 

 able than the Groatsucker's lamentable wail. ' Suppose yourself 

 in hopeless sorrow,' says Waterton, ' begin with a high, loud 

 note, and pronounce ha, ha, ha, ha, ha ! each note lower and 

 lower till the last is scarcely heard, pausing a moment or two 

 between every note, and you will have some idea of the 

 mourning of the largest Groatsucker in Demerara. P'our other 

 species of goatsucker articulate some words so distinctly, that 

 they have received their names from the sentences they utter, 

 and absolutely bewilder the stranger on his arrival in these 

 parts. The most common one sits down close by your door, 

 and flies and alights three or four yards before you, as you walk 

 along the road, crying, ' Who are you, who-who-who-who are 

 you ? ' Another bids you, ' Work away, work- work-work away.' 

 A third cries mournfully, ' Willy come go, Willy-Willy- Willy 

 come go.' And high up in the country, a fourth tells you to, 

 ' Whip- poor-Will, whip-whip-whip- poor-Will.' 



You will never persuade the negro to destroy the birds, or 

 get the Indian to let fly his arrow at them, for they are held to 

 be the receptacles for departed souls, who came back again to 

 earth, unable to rest for crimes done in their days of nature, or 

 expressly sent to haunt cruel and hardhearted masters, and 

 retaliate injuries received from them. If the largest goatsucker 

 chance to cry near the white man's door, sorrow and grief will 

 soon be inside, and they expect to see the master waste away 

 with a slow consuming sickness. If it be heard close to the 

 negro's or Indian's hut, from that night misfortune sits brooding 

 over it, and they await the event in terrible suspense. 



During the daytime, the Groatsucker, whose eyes, like those 



A A 2 



