AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 



55 



plants. The long-extended surface of Java, abounding 

 with conical points which exceed this elevation, affords 

 many places^favourable for its resort. On ascending these 

 mountains, the traveller scarcely fails to meet with this 

 animal, which, from its peculiarities, is universally known 

 to the inhabitants of these elevated tracts, while to those 

 of the plains it is as strange as an animal from a foreign 

 country. In my visits to the mountainous districts, I 

 uniformly met with it, and, as far as the information of 

 the natives can be relied on, it is found on all the moun- 

 tains." 



Now, if we were asked to conjecture how the Mydaus 

 ai'rived at the elevated regions of each of these isolated 

 mountains, we should say that before the isle was peopled 

 by man, by whom their numbers are now thinned, they 

 may occasionally have multiplied so as to be forced to col- 

 lect together and migrate; in which case, notwithstanding 

 the slowness of their motions, some few would succeed in 

 reaching another mountain, some twenty, or even, per- 

 haps, fifty miles distant: for although the climate of the 

 hot intervening plains would be unfavourable to them, 

 they might support it for a time, and would find there 

 abundance of insects on which they feed. Volcanic erup- 

 tions, which at different times have covered the summits 

 of some of these lofty cones with sterile sand and ashes, may 

 have occasionally contributed to force on these migrations. 



[Lyell's Geology. 



CAVE OF GUACHARO, NEAR CUMANA. 



The greatest curiosity in this beautiful and salubrious 

 district is a cavern inhabited by nocturnal birds, the fat 

 of which is employed in the missions for dressing food. It 

 is named the Cave of Guacharo, and is situated in a valley 

 three leagues distant from the convent. 



On the 18th of September our travellers, accompanied 

 by most of the monks and some of the Indians, set out for 

 this aviary, following for an hour and a half a narrow path, 

 leading across a fine plain covered with beautiful turf; 

 then, turning westward along a small river which issues 

 from the cave, they proceeded during three-quarters of an 

 hour, sometimes walking in the water, sometimes on a 

 slippery and miry soil, between the torrent and a wall of 

 rocks, until they arrived at the foot of the lofty mountain 

 of Guacharo. Here the torrent ran in a deep ravine, and 

 they went on under a projecting cliff, which prevented 

 them from seeing the sky, until at the last turning they 

 came suddenly upon the immense opening of the recess, 



which is eighty-five feet broad and seventy-seven feet 

 high. The entrance is towards the south, and is formed 

 in the vertical face of a rock, covered with trees of gigantic 

 height, intermixed with numerous species of singular and 

 beautiful plants, some of which hang in festoons over the 

 vault. This luxuriant vegetation is not confined to the 

 exterior of the cave, but appears even in the vestibule, 

 where the travellers were astonished to see heliconias nine- 

 teen feet in height, palms, and arborescent arums. They 

 had advanced about four hundred and sixty feet before it 

 became necessary to light their torches, when they heard 

 from afar the hoarse screams of the birds. 



The Guacharo is the size of a domestic fowl, and has 

 somewhat the appearance of a vulture, with a mouth like 

 that of a goatsucker. It forms a distant genus in the order 

 Passeres, differing from that just named in having a 

 stronger beak, furnished with two denticulations, though 

 in its manners it bears an affinity to it as well as to the 

 alpine crow. Its plumage is dark bluish-gray, minutely 

 streaked and spotted with deep brown; the head, wings, 

 and tail being marked with white spots bordered with 

 black. The extent of the wings is three feet and a half. 

 It lives on fruits, but quits the cave only in the evening. 

 The shrill and piercing cries of these birds, assembled in 

 multitudes, are said to form a harsh and disagreeable noise, 

 somewhat resembling that of a rookery. The nests, which 

 the guides showed by means of torches fastened to a long 

 pole, were placed in funnel-shaped holes in the roof. The 

 noise increased as they advanced, the animals being fright- 

 ened by the numerous lights. 



About midsummer every year the Indians, armed with 

 poles, enter the cave, and destroy the greater part of the 

 nests. Several thousands of young birds are thus killed, 

 and the old ones hover around, uttering frightful cries. 

 Those which are secured in this manner are opened on the 

 spot, to obtain the fat which exists abundantly in their 

 abdomen, and which is subsequently melted in clay ves- 

 sels over fires of brushwood. This substance is semifluid, 

 transparent, destitute of smell, and keeps above a year 

 without becoming rancid. At the convent of Caripe it 

 was used in the kitchen of the monks, and our travellers 

 never found that it communicated any disagreeable smell 

 or taste to the food. 



The Guacharoes would have been long ago destroyed, 

 had not the superstitious dread of the Indians prevented 

 them from penetrating far into the cavern. It also appears, 

 that birds of the same species dwell in other inaccessible 

 places in the neighbourhood, and that the great cave is re- 

 peopled by colonies from them. The hard and dry fruits 

 which are found in the crops and gizzards of the young 

 ones are considered as an excellent remedy against inter- 



