THE GOATSUCKER 369 



bleat he will distinctly answer them. Then comes his own song 

 again, and if a puppy dog or a guinea fowl interrupt him, he 

 takes them off admirably, and by his different 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 (Ge- 

 phalopterus 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 {Hup icola Peru- 

 viana) sends forth a note, which might readily be mistaken 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 remarkable than the Goatsucker's lament- 

 able wail. " Suppose yourself in hopeless sorrow," says Water- 

 ton, " 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 goatsucker in 

 Demerara. 



" Four 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, w^ho-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 



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