480 GOATSUCKERS. 



endure the movement to which it is subjected when agitated 

 by the wind. 



A fourth species flies in flocks — especially when the Indian 

 maize is ripe — and is looked on wuth a jealous eye by the 

 farmers, whom it robs, and whom it does not repay by the 

 melody of its song. 



GOATSUCKERS. 



Numerous species of the goatsucker, well known as the 

 bird of night, inhabit the forests of the Amazon as well as 

 the settled districts. Their pretty mottled plumage is desti- 

 tute of the lustre which is observed in the feathers of the 

 birds of day. One is nearly the size of the common wood 

 owl. Its cry once heard will never be forgotten. It seems like 

 one in deep distress. "A stranger," says Waterton, "would 

 never believe the sound to be the voice of a bird. He would 

 say it was the last groan of a midnight murdered victim, or 

 the cry of Niobe for her children before she w^as turned into 

 stone. Suppose a person in great sorrow, who begins with a 

 loud note, Ha, ha, ha, ha ! and so on, each note lower and 

 lower, till the last is scarcely heard, pausing a moment or 

 tw T o between every note, and some idea may be formed of 

 the moaning of the largest goatsucker." 



Other species articulate some words so clearly, that they 

 receive their names from the sentences they utter. One cries 

 "Who are you? who, who, who are j t ou ? " Another bids 

 you "Work away; work, work away." A third shrieks 

 mournfully- " Willy come, go Willy, Willy, Willy come, go;" 

 and a fourth exclaims— "Whip poor Willy; whip, whip, whip 

 poor Willy ! " Happily for it, neither the negro nor the 

 Indian — who believe it to be a bird of ill-omen— will venture 



