1909] Beebe: Birds of Northeastern Venezuela. 85 



The notes I made at that place are of sufficient interest for 

 insertion here. The call of this bird is of a most weird char- 

 acter, — a long, drawn out descending moan or diminuendo wail, 

 ceasing abruptly and followed by three, four or sometimes five 

 short notes uttered at regular intervals and successively lower 

 and deeper in tone. The natives are not to be blamed for re- 

 garding this bird with deep superstition. Mr. Carr has written 

 the call in musical notation thus :- — 



The birds began calling at about nine o'clock in the even- 

 ing and would answer each other, and come nearer when one 

 imitated the note. We drew one bird close to the house, and 

 thereby nearly frightened an old creole man to death. It 

 perched on exposed stubs and fence-posts, sitting stiffly erect' 

 with its tail pressed close to the stub, merging perfectly with the 

 dead wood; seeming like a gray, mottled continuation of the 

 stub itself.* When I flashed a strong electric light toward it, 

 the eyes glowed like great orange globes of dull fire — the red- 

 dish-yellow choroidal vessels being brilliantly reflected. It was 

 such a remarkable sight — ^these two great orbs glowing and 



Fig. 31. Top View. Fig. 33. Side View. 



winking from out of the darkness, — that Mrs. Beebe and Mr. 

 Carr who were with me were astonished. If one of the Creoles 

 had been present he would have fallen down and worshipped the 



*For an illustration and description of this bird see Brewster and Chapman 

 in The Auk, xii, pp. 208-211. 



