102 NOCTURNAL BIRDS. 
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 irightened 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, ut- 
tering 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 vessels 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 de- 
stroyed, had not the superstitious dread of the In- 
dians prevented them from penetrating far into the 
cavern. It also appears, that birds of the same spe- 
cies dwell in other inaccessible places in the neigh- 
bourhood, and that the great cave is repeopled 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 
intermittent fevers, and regularly sent to Cariaco 
