TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 77 



peating the echo of the other in 

 quick succession. They are shy, 

 and, aided by the darkness of 

 the night, it is impossible to see 

 this bird in nature at close range 

 and only once in a while, at 

 moonlight, the shadowy outlines 

 of the large bird are seen acci- 

 dentally when the Whip-poor-will 

 alights from its hiding haunts. 

 The song of this bird is so im- 

 pressive that, once heard, it is 

 very seldom forgotten by any one, 

 and one can listen a long time 

 to the thrilling sounds while so- 

 journing at a farm house at night. 



The Guacharo or Fat Bird be- 

 longs to the same class as the bull-^ 

 bat and whip-poorwill, and has rare- 

 ly been seen in the canyons and 

 mountainous regions of Texas 

 Years ago, in a cave around 

 Helotes, west of San Antonio, such 

 bird has been seen — perhaps from 

 foreign regions. The life history 

 of this strange cave bird is but 

 little known to us, so a description 

 of same by Humboldt might inter- 

 est my readers. 



In his travels through South 

 America, Alexander von Humboldt 

 refers to the following personal 

 explorations of a guacharo cave 

 in which millions of the so- 

 called "Guacharo" or "fat birds" 

 were encountered: "The cave, 

 which the natives designate as 

 a fat pit, is located several miles 

 off the convent of the San Antonio 

 . and Guanaguana, in the valley 

 of Capri;' and Humboldt was 

 led there during his marvelous 

 travels by the Alcalde and several 

 Monks. At times they had to 

 wade through water that was 

 not very deep, and at times 

 between a rivulet and rock cliffs, 

 or very slippery or swampy soil. 

 Numerous earth mounds, dispersed 

 logs, over which the mule teams 

 had tedious traveling, made the 

 trip exceedingly tiresome to reach 

 the Guacharo Mountain. A rivu- 

 let runs through a shaft of this 

 mountain, and one goes under 

 a high cliff above which the sky 

 is not to be seen. The road 



winds itself with the rivulet, and 

 at its last bend one suddenly 

 stands before the colossal opening 

 of the Guacharo cave; and the 

 scene is something enormous for 

 eyes accustomed to the scenic 

 panorama of the Alps, as the 

 highly imposing tropical plant 

 life imparts a most fascinating 

 impression of such earth cave. 

 This plant splendor even extends 

 into the main portal of the large 

 cave. With amazement we no- 

 ticed how eighteen feet high, bril- 

 liant heliconia, propapalens, and 

 treelike aruma plants covered 

 the banks of the rivulet and 

 underground layers. Once enter- 

 ing the enormous cavity of this 

 cave, one has no idea of the 

 enormous noise thousands of the 

 Guacharo birds make in the dark- 

 ness of the cave. 



Humboldt compares this noise 

 with the racket thousands of 

 our crows make in a bunch, 

 especially where the guacharo birds 

 domicile close to each other. 

 The yelling, penetrating screeching 

 and nervethrilling noise of these 

 guacharos from the enormous 

 rock vaults appears as echo from 

 the deepest depths of the. cave. 

 The native Indians attached a 

 torch to a long stick and thus 

 showed Humboldt and his com- 

 panions the myriads of nests in 

 this cave which were located in 

 funnel-shaped holes, and in im- 

 mense numbers along the interior 

 vaults of this cave. The deeper 

 they advanced into this cave, 

 and the more of the birds were 

 chased up through the light 

 of the Kopal torches, the more 

 the tumult and noise of the 

 birds increased. As soon as the 

 noise ceased at one particular- 

 place for a few minutes, a tumult- 

 uous screaming and fluttering was 

 heard from other, deeper parts of 

 the cave. 



"The Guacharo departs from 

 its haunts at night time, especially 

 during bright moonlight to seek 

 its food, consisting niostly of 

 hard seed, and the Indians say 



