126 



white spots, which have the form of a hearty 

 and which are bordered with black, mark the 

 head, the wings, and the tail. The eyes of the 

 bird are hurt by the blaze of day ; they are blue, 

 and smaller than those of the goat-suckers. The 

 spread of the wings, which are composed of se- 

 venteen or eighteen quill feathers, is three feet 

 and a half. The guacharo quits the, cavern at 

 night-fall, especially when the moon shines. 

 It is almost the only frugiferous nocturnal bird, 

 that is yet known; the conformation of it's 

 feet sufficiently shows, that it does not hunt 

 like our owls. It feeds on very hard fruits ; 

 as the nut-cracker # and the pyrrhocorax. The 

 latter nestles also in clefts of rocks, and is 

 known under the name of night-crow. The 

 Indians assured us,' that the guacharo does not 

 pursue either the latneliicornous insects, or 

 those phalaenae which serve as food to the goat- 

 suckers. It is sufficient to compare the beaks 

 of the guacharo and goat-sucker, to conjecture 

 how much their manners must differ. It is dif- 

 ficult to form an idea of the horrible noise oc- 

 casioned by thousands of these birds in the 

 dark part of the cavern, and which, can only 



* Corvus caryocatactes, ci glanderius. Our alpine crow 

 builds it's nest, toward the top of Mount Libanus, in sub- 

 terranean caverns, nearly like the guacharo : the horribly 

 shrill voice of which it also has. (Labillardiere, Ann. du 

 Mus€e, T. 18, p. 455.) 



