236 Mr. Coijjngwood Ingram,


A GUACHARO CAVE.


By Corungwood Ingram, M.B.O.U.


In the island of Trinidad the Oil-bird, Steatornis caripe 7 isis,

is locally called the “ Guacharo ” or perhaps it is still more

familiarly known as the “ Diablotin ” or “Little Devil.” It owes

its first-mentioned name to the fact that the young are coated

with abundant quantities of fat. To procure this in certain

parts of South America the natives kill large numbers of nest¬

lings and from their fatty covering are able to produce a highly

useful oil. To taxonomists this species is of singular interest as

it forms a family group entirely by itself. Superficially—and

this is all that concerns us here—it somewhat resembles a large

Goatsucker, with dark, chocolate-coloured plumage, lightly

barred on the upper surface, and bearing a few white spots about

the shoulders and Breast. During the hours of daylight the

Diablotin habitually remains concealed in certain large caverns,

only emerging therefrom as twilight falls over the land. In

Trinidad, as elsewhere, tenanted caves are few and far between,

but in some there exist very large colonies, occasionally con¬

sisting of several thousands of individuals. Unfortunately, the

cave that I visited during my stay in the West Indies was not

peopled by one of these vast assemblies; to make a modest

estimate, I should think it hardly contained more than two

hundred pairs, or two hundred and fifty at the outside.


I set out upon the expedition I am about to describe one

day in mid-December, two negroes accompanying me as guides.


The men first led me to a little cove where we found, lying

on the white beach, a small and frail looking boat. Exposure to

the weather had apparently widened her seams, for no sooner

did we launch her than she commenced to fill with alarming

rapidity and I was obliged to bale vigorously to keep her afloat.

For more than an hour we followed the shore, keeping as close in

as possible to avoid the choppy head-sea that was running. The

tropical scenery of the coast was very beautiful, for the land fell

sheer to the sea’s edge and displayed a luxuriant forest growth

even to the spray-splashed rocks at the foot of the cliffs. Among

these boulders sat the solemn Brown Pelican of the tropics,



