518 On the Giant Goatsucker of Brazil. 



(Nyctidromus albicollis), which has the habit of retiring 

 during the day to thick patches of under-brush, is always 

 sufficiently on its guard not to be caught napping, and 

 escapes soon enough to shew that it has discovered an in- 

 truder before it is discovered itself. The surprising activity 

 manifested by the different species of the small and very 

 handsome Owls of the genus Glaucidium during the whole 

 day is also perfectly familiar to students of Brazilian 

 ornithology. 



Not a few species of Bats in South America, especially of 

 the wood-loving kind, are to be seen in full flight both late 

 in the morning and some hours before sunset. The dimi- 

 nutive and characteristic Bat of the coast-rivers of Amazonia 

 and Guiana, the exquisite Rhynchonycteris naso, recognisable 

 at once by its protruding nose and of eminently gregarious 

 nature, always surprises me by its vigilance and agility even 

 at full mid-day. 



The examples which I have quoted serve no other purpose 

 than to shew that the wakefulness of the Goatsucker in the 

 early morning is perfectly analogous to what we often see 

 among other nocturnal creatures. 



The harmony between the first figure of each of the two 

 series represents, therefore, the grain of truth in the popular 

 notion. But the reader will see at a glance by com- 

 parison of the remaining figures of the two series, as well 

 as from my explanations in the text, that, from that 

 point onwards, the real facts and the popular idea have 

 nothing in common ; on the contrary, the facts are diametri- 

 cally opposed to the fanciful legend of the country -people. 

 Leniency towards folk-lore, of course, cannot go so far as to 

 close our eyes to the fact that what the people imagine they 

 see in the case of the Urut.tu would amount to a complete 

 misunderstanding of the character and habits of a typical 1 

 nocturnal bird, and would give a false notion of them. 



