125 



think belong* exclusively to those subterrane- 

 ous places. 



The guacharo is of the size of our fowls, has 

 the rnouth of the goatsuckers and procnias, 

 and the port of those vultures, the crooked beak 

 of which is surrounded with stiff silky hairs. 

 Suppressing, with Mr. Cuvier, the order ofpicae, 

 we must refer this extraordinary bird to the 

 passeres, the genera of which are connected 

 with each other by almost imperceptible transi- 

 tions. I have noted it under the name of 

 steatornis, in a particular monography, con- 

 tained in the second volume of my Observations 

 on Zoology and Comparative Anatomy. It 

 forms a new genus *, very different from the 

 goat-sucker by the force of it's voice, by the 

 considerable strength of it's beak, containing a 

 double tooth, by it's feet without the mem- 

 branes that unite the anterior phalanxes of the 

 claws. It is the first example of a nocturnal 

 bird among the passeres dentirostrati. In it's 

 manners it has analogies both with the goat- 

 suckers and the alpine crowf. The plumage of 

 the guacharo is of a dark bluish gray, mixed 

 with small streaks and specks of black. Large 



* It's essential characters are : rostrum validum, lateribus 

 compressura, apice aduncum, mandibula superiori subbiden- 

 tata, dente antcriori acutiori. Rictus amplissimus. Pedes 

 breves, digitis fissis, unguibus integerrirnis. 



+ Corvus pvrrhocorax. 



