EXPLANATORY INDEX, 413 



G. 



Goatsuckers. — All these birds, of which there are many 

 in Guiana, belong to the Caprimulgidae, and some, from the 

 singular cry which they utter, are objects of superstitious 

 dread, both to natives and negroes. Kingsley gives an 

 amusing and graphic description of the alarm caused by one of 

 these birds. After narrating how he tried to sleep, and was 

 kept awake, first by the romping of his companions, who 

 broke down a four-post bedstead in their play, and then by the 

 wind, which blew all the clothes off the bed, he proceeds as 

 follows : — ■ 



" Then the dogs exploded outside, probably at some hen- 

 roost robbing opossum, and had a chevy through the cocos 

 till they treed their game, and bayed it to their hearts' con- 

 tent. Then something else exploded — and I do not deny it 

 set me more aghast than I had been for many a day — ex- 

 ploded, I say, under the window, with a shriek of hut-tut-tut- 

 tat, hut-tut, such as I hope never to hear again. After which, 

 dead silence ; save of the surf to the east and the toads to 

 the west. I fell asleep, wondering what animal could own so 

 detestable a voice ; and in half an hour was awoke again by 

 another explosion ; after which, happily, the thing, I suppose, 

 went its wicked way, for I heard it no more. 



" I found out the next morning that the obnoxious bird was 

 not an owl, but a large Goatsucker, a Nyctibius, I believe, 

 who goes by the name of jumby-bird among the English 

 negroes ; and no wonder ; for most ghostly and horrible is his 

 cry. But worse ; he has but one eye, and a glance from that 

 glaring eye, as from the basilisk of old, is certain death ; and 

 worse still, he can turn off its light as a policeman does his 

 lantern, and become instantly invisible ; opinions which, if 

 verified by experiment, are not always found to be in accord- 

 ance with facts. But that is no reason why they should not 

 be believed. 



" In St. Vincent, for instance, the negroes one evening 



