THE GOAT-SUCKERS. 43 
ceive at the hands of the farmer, to whom they are his best friends; yet it 
is a fact, that in a great many sections they are driven from the chimneys 
of the farm-houses, and even destroyed, at every opportunity. 
About the 10th of August the Chimney Swallow, in large, scattered 
flocks, leaves for the south, and spends the winter in Honduras and the 
West Indies. On returning, in the spring, the same pair occupy the 
chimney used in the previous season, as has been proved by actual obser- 
vation. 
The nest of the Esculent Swallow is regarded as a great delicacy by the 
Chinese. “These nests are composed of a mucilaginous substance, usually 
more or less mixed with fragments of grass, hair, and similar materials : 
they are attached to the surface of rocks in caverns, and the birds always 
build in communities. It was formerly supposed that the mucilaginous mat~- 
ter employed in the construction of the nests was obtained from sea-weeds 
eaten by the birds; but it is now ascertained, beyond a doubt, that the 
lands. 
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ot 
substance in question is secreted by greatly-developed salivary 
These birds are found in great abundance in all parts of the Eastern Archi- 
pelago, and on the continent of India. The nests are collected in great 
quantities, and constitute an important article of commerce with China. 
Famity Carrimutcip®. Nicur Jars, Om Brrps, AnD GOAT-SUCKERS. 
The Steatornithine, or Oil Birds, are among the most interesting of this 
group. 
The Guacharo (Steatorni’s Caripensis) is thus described : — 
This extraordinary bird was discovered by Baron Humboldt in the cavern 
of Caripe, called Cueva del Guacharo, in the province of Cumana, which it 
haunts in thousands. These birds quit the cave only at nightfall, especially 
when there is moonlight; and Humboldt remarks that it is almost the only 
frugivorous night-bird yet known. It feeds on very hard fruits (an excep- 
tion to the rule among the Caprimulgidw), and the Indians assured him 
(though we place little dependence on their statement) that it does not pur- 
sue either the hard-winged insects, or the moths that serve as the food of 
this tribe of birds. It is, he states, difficult to form any idea of the horrible 
noise made by thousands of the Guacharo birds in the dark recesses of the 
cavern, whence their shrill and piercing eries strike upon the vaulted rock, 
and are repeated by the echo in the depths of the grotto. By fixing torches 
of copal to the end of a long pole, the Indians showed the nests of these 
birds, fifty or sixty feet above the heads of the explorers, in funnel-shaped 
holes, with which the cavern roof is pierced like a sieve. 
Once a year, near midsummer, the Guacharo cavern is entered by the 
Indians. Armed with poles, they ransack the greater part of the nests, 
s 
