1894
March 30
(No 6)
Trinidad, B.W.I.
Caparo
  It was nearly dark when we started for home.
At the point where the road enters the cacao grove
I saw two of the peculiar slow-flying Bats which
Chapman has thus far tried in vain to obtain. They
do not come out until it [is] too dark to see to shoot
and they fly so low that one cannot get them
out of the gloom except when directly overhead and
only a few yards from the gun. I was vainly
attempting to shoot one when a much larger
Bat came rushing swiftly overhead and I brought
it down with a broken wing. I was a vicious
creature and when approached jumped up at us
clashing its teeth which glowed in the darkness
as we both thought with a phosphorescent light.
Its shrill squeaking attracted several others of the
same kind who dashed directly at our heads
apparently passing within a foot or less of out
faces. I tried to shoot another but the
light was too poor. This specimen measured 22 inches in [?] extent.

  The Owls these dark nights hoot or screech only
in the evening and morning twilight but to-night
at about 9 o'clock we heard a Barn Owl very
near the house. Its cry seemed to me much
like that of a young child. It is the only
time we have heard it here.

  The superb big fire flies are also rather crepuscular
than nocturnal for I rarely see them after it is fairly
dark. As they wave to and fro through the cacao grove
they light up the ground beneath almost as brightly
as would a small lantern.