370 TROPICAL BIRD LIFE IN BOTH HEMISPHERES 



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 goatsucker, whose eyes, like those of 

 the owl, are too delicately formed to bear the light, retires to the 

 deepest recesses of the forest, but when the sun has sunk behind 

 the western woods, he may, on moonlight nights, be seen silently 

 hovering in the forest glades, or hopping about among the herds. 

 This poor bird has the character of a nocturnal thief, but never 

 has a more unjust accusation been made, as, far from robbing 

 the flocks of their milk, he does all he can to free them from 

 insects. " See how the nocturnal flies are tormenting the herd," 

 says Waterton, "and with what dexterity he springs up, and catches 

 them, as fast as they alight on the belly, legs, and udder of the 

 animals. Observe how quiet they stand, and how sensible they 

 seem of his good offices, for they neither strike at him, nor hit 

 him with their tail, nor tread on him ; nor try to drive him 

 away as an uncivil intruder. Were you to dissect him, and 

 inspect his stomach, you would find no milk there : it is full of 

 the flies which have been annoying the herd." 



The large tropical nocturnal butterflies, or moths, form 

 the chief food of the wide-beaked goatsucker, and the 

 number of their wings that may be seen lying about, give 

 proof of the ravages he commits among their ranks. For as 

 the bat with his hooked thumb cuts off" the wings of the 

 moths and cockchafers which he catches on his twilight excur- 

 sions, thus, also, the goatsucker refrains from swallowing these 

 parts, and his hooked and incurvated upper mandible seems 

 purposely intended for clipping them. 



While the goatsucker makes the forest resound with his 

 funereal tones, other birds of the forest pour forth the sweetest 

 notes. Dressed in a sober cinnamon brown robe, with blackish 

 olive-coloured head and neck, the Organist {Troglodytes leuco- 

 phys) enlivens the solitude of the Peruvian forests. The 

 astonished wanderer stops to listen to the strain, and forgets 

 the impending storm. 



The Cilgero, a no less delightful songster, frequents the 

 mountain regions of Cuba, and the beauty of his notes may be 

 inferred from the extravagant price of several hundred dollars, 

 which the rich Havanese are ready to pay for a captive bird. 



