POTOO. 45 



As night approached I expected that it would 

 become animated ; but it did not stir, nor shew 

 any sign of vivacity, though I watched it till it 

 was quite dark. Several times in the evening I 

 went into the room, up to ten o'clock, but it was 

 where I had left it. About three in the morning 

 I had occasion to go in again with a candle ; the 

 Potoo had not altered his position, and when the 

 day came, there he was unmoved, nor do I believe 

 he had stirred during the whole night. Thus he 

 remained during the next day ; I put his beak 

 into water, and let fall drops upon it, but he 

 refused to drink : I then caught beetles ( Tene- 

 brionidce) and cockroaches, but he took no notice 

 of them ; and though I repeatedly opened his 

 beak and put the insects into his broad and slimy 

 mouth, they were instantly jerked out by an im- 

 patient toss of his head. Towards this evening, 

 however, he began to glower about, and once or 

 twice suddenly flew out into the midst of the 

 room, and then fluttered either to the ground, or 

 to some resting place. Many little Tinea were 

 flitting around my dried bird-skins, and I con- 

 jectured that he might be capturing these, es- 

 pecially as when at rest his eye would now and 

 then seem to catch sight of some object, and glance 

 quickly along, as if following its course. The 

 statement of Cuvier, that " the proportions of the 

 Nyctibius completely disqualify it from rising from 

 a level surface," I saw disproved; for notwith- 

 standing the shortness of the tarsi, (and it is, in- 

 deed, extreme,) my bird repeatedly alighted on, 



