uckers. It is sufficient to compare the beaks of the Guacharo
and goat-sucker to conjecture how much their manners must differ.
It is difficult to form an idea of the horrible noise occasioned by
thousands of these birds in the dark part of the cavern, and which
can only be compared to the croaking of our crows, which in the pine
forests of the north live in society, and construct their nests upon
trees the tops of which touch each other. The shrill and piercing
cries of the Guacharos strike upon the vaults of the rocks, and are
repeated by the echo in the depth of the cavern. The Indians showed
us the nests of these birds by fixing torches to the end of a long
pole. These nests were fifty or sixty feet high above our heads, in
holes in the shape of funnels, with which the roof of the grotto is
pierced like a sieve. The noise increased as we advanced, and the
birds were affrighted by the light of the torches of copal. When
this noise ceased a few minutes around us we heard at a distance the
plaintive cries of the birds roosting in other ramifications of the
cavern. It seemed as if these bands answered each other
alternately.

'The Indians enter into the Cueva del Guacharo once a year, near
midsummer, armed with poles, by means of which they destroy the
greater part of the nests. At this season several thousands of
birds are killed; and the old ones, as if to defend their brood,
hover over the heads of the Indians, uttering terrible cries. The
young, which fall to the ground, are opened on the spot. Their
peritoneum is extremely loaded with fat, and a layer of fat reaches
from the abdomen to the anus, forming a kind of cushion between the
legs of the bird. This quantity of fat in frugivorous animals, not
exposed to the light, and exerting very little muscular motion,
reminds us of what has been long since observed in the fattening of
geese and oxen. It is well known how favourable darkness and repose
are to this process. The nocturnal birds of Europe are lean,
because, instead of feeding on fruits, like the Guacharo, they live
on the scanty produce of their prey. At the period which is
commonly called at Caripe the "oil harvest," the Indians build huts
with palm-leaves near the entrance, and even in the porch of the
cavern. Of these we still saw some remains. There, with a fire of
brushwood, they melt in pots of clay the fat of the young birds just
killed. This fat i