Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/239

Rh temperament, and his natural tendencies were fostered both by private misfortune and by the terrible public calamities of his age. Like most German writers in the first half of the 17th century, he was profoundly influenced by the critical doctrines of Opitz, on which account he is usually classed with the first Silesiau school, although by some of his characteristics he is more closely allied to the second Silesian school. His best works are his comedies, one of which, Peter Squenz, is based on the comic episode of A Midsummer Night s Dream. Die geliebte Dornrose (The Beloved Wildfose), which is written in a Silesian dialect, contains many touches of natural simplicity and grace, and still ranks high among the comparatively small number of genuine comedies of which German literature can boast. HorribUlscribrifax is a rather laboured attack on pedantry. Besides these three comedies, Gryphius wrote five tragedies. In all of them his tendency is to become wild and bombastic, but he had the merit of at least attempting to work out artistically conceived plans, and there are occasional flashes both of passion and of imagination. His models seem to have been Seneca, and the great Dutch poet Vondel. He had the courage, in Carolus Stuardus, to deal with events of his own day; his other tragedies are Leo Arminius, Katharina von Georgien, Cardenio imd Celinda, and Pampinianus. The lyrics of Gryphius give utterance to his despairing views of life, and are not without power; but it is as a dramatist that he is mainly important. No German dramatic writer before him had risen to so high a level, nor had he worthy successors until about the middle of the 18th century. A selection from his lyrics will be found in W. Miiller s Bibliothek der deutschen Dichter des I7 ten Jahrhnnderts (Bd. 2), and a selection from his dramatic writings in Tittmann s Deutsche Dichter des ten JaJirhunderts.

See Klc*pp, Andreas Gryphius als Dramatiker (1851); and Herr mann, Ucbcr Andreas Gryphius (1851).

 GUACHARO, 1 the Spanish-American name of what English writers have lately taken to calling the OiL-BiRD, the Steatornis caripensis of ornithologists, a very remarkable bird, first described by Alexander von Humboldt (Voy. anx Reg. J^quinoxiales, i. p. 413, Engl. transl., iii. p. 119; Obs. Zoologie, ii. p. 141, pi. xliv.) from his own observation and from examples obtained by Bonpland, on the visit of those two travellers, in September 1799, to a cave near Caripe (at that time a monastery of Aragonese Capuchins) in the Venezuelan province of Cumana on the northern coast of South America. A few years later it was discovered, says Latham (Gen. Hist. Birds, 1823, vii. p. 365), to inhabit Trinidad, where it appears to bear the name of Diablotin? and much more recently, by the receipt of specimens pro cured at Sarayacu in Ecuador, Caxamarca in the Peruvian Andes, and Antioquia in New Grenada (Proc. Zool. Society, 1878, pp. 139, 140; 1879, p. 532), its range has been shown to be much greater than had been supposed. The singularity of its structure, its curious habits, and its peculiar economical value have naturally attracted no little attention, and it has formed the subject of investigation by a considerable number of zaologists both British and foreign. First referring it to the genus Caprimulgus, its original describer soon saw that it was no true Goatsucker. It was subsequently separated as forming a Subfamily, and has at last been regarded as the type of a distinct Family, Steator- nithidce a view which, though not put forth till 1870 (Zool. Record, vi. p. 67), seems now to be generally deemed correct. Its systematic position, however, can scarcely be considered settled, for though on the whole its predominat-

1 This is said to be an obsolete Spanish word signifying one that cries, moans, or laments loudly.

2 Not to be confounded with the bird so called in the French Antilles, which is a Petrel (CE sir data).

ing alliance may be with the Caprimidgidw, nearly as much affinity may be traced to the titrigidce, while it possesses some characters in which it differs from both (Proc. Zool. Society, 1873, pp. 526-535). About as big as a Crow, its plumage exhibits the blended tints of chocolate-colour and grey, barred and pencilled with dark brown or black, and spotted in places with white, that prevail in the two I families just named. The beak is hard, strong, and deeply nished with twelve long hairs on each side. The legs and toes are comparatively feeble, but the wings are large. In habits the Guacharo is wholly nocturnal, slumbering by day in deep and dark caverns which it frequents in vast num bers. Towards evening it arouses itself, and, with croaking and clattering which has been likened to that of castanets, it approaches the exit of its retreat, whence at nightfall it issues in search of its food, which, so far as is known, con sists entirely of oily nuts or fruits, belonging especially to the genera Achras, Aiphanas, Laurus, and Psichotria, some of them sought, it would seem, at a very great distance, for M. Funck (Bull. Acad. Sc. Bruxelles, xi. pt. 2, pp. 371- 377) states that in the stomach of one he obtained at Caripe&quot; he found the seed of a tree which he believed did not grow nearer than 80 leagues. The hard, indigestible seeds floor and the ledges of the caverns it frequents, where many of them for a time vegetate, the plants thus growing being etiolated from want of light, and, according to travellers, forming a singular feature of the gloomy scene which these places present. The Guacharo is said to build a bowl-like nest of clay, in which it lays from two to four white eggs, with a smooth but lustreless surface, resembling those of some Owls. The young soon after they are hatched become a perfect mass of fat, and while yet in the nest are sought by the Indians, who at Caripe, and perhaps elsewhere, make a special business of taking them and ex tracting the oil they contain. This is done about mid summer, when by the aid of torches and long poles many thousands of the young birds are slaughtered, while their parents in alarm and rage hover over the destroyers heads, uttering harsh and deafening cries. The grease is melted over fires kindled at the cavern s mouth, run into earthen pots, and preserved for use in cooking as well as for the lighting of lamps. It is said to be pure and limpid, free from any disagreeable taste or smell, and capable of being kept for a year without turning rancid. In Trinidad the young are esteemed a great delicacy for the table by many, though some persons object to their peculiar scent, which, says Le&quot;otaud (Ois. de la Trinidad, p. 68) resembles that of a Cockroach (Blatta), and consequently refuse to eat them. The old birds also, according to Mr E. C. Taylor (Ibis, 1864, p. 90) have a strong Crow-like odour. But one species of the genus Steatornis is known.
 * notched, the nostrils are prominent, and the gape is fur
 * swallowed by the Guacharo are found in quantities on the

 GUACO,, or , also Vejuco and Bejuco, terms applied to various Central and South American and West Indian plants, in repute for alexipharmic and curative virtues. The Indians and negroes of New Granada believe the plants known to them as guaco to have been so named after a species of kite, thus designated in imitation of its cry, which they say attracts to it the snakes that serve it principally for food ; they further hold the tradition that their antidotal qualities were discovered through the obser-