The diurnal ansiotropy of cosmic ray intensity has been investigated over the interval 1973--1978 by using neutron monitor data from Calgary, Deep River, Goose Bay, and Inuvik. It is observed that in general, the 27-day variation in the diurnal anisotropy is greater for the component perpendicular to the nominal interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) in comparison with the parallel (or field aligned) component, which has very little 'power'. However, the direction of the average anisotropy vector is aligned almost perpendicular (within the hour) to the IMF. The results are discussed in terms of alternate possibilities: the 'power' with 27-day period and its harmonics arise from fluctuations in the amplitude aligned in the direction (a) of the total vector itself (≈16 hours) (b) perpendicular to the IMF.