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Aramides cajanea, I 
      
June 17, 1960
Barro Colorado

My pair of captive Wood-rails has finally bred. A clutch of 4 hatched yesterday (when I was in Balboa, of course), sometime between 7:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. I took them out of their parents' cage before 7:00 a.m. today. Keeping them all together in a cage in the animal house.

They were very shy and upset when we first took them this morning. But they calmed down fairly rapidly. By this evening, I could get them to follow me quite well (although they still show a tendency to panic when I made a sudden vigorous movement).

They are marked as follows: White-head (WH), White-back (WB), white-rump (WR), and unmarked (UN)  Ambrose is keeping the record of their weights.

This morning, when we first took them, they made no attempt to peck at food or anything else. Presumably too upset so we force fed them. By mid-day, they were pecking at specks on the floor of their cage, and one of them ate meal worms from a forceps. By afternoon, they all managed to eat a few meal worms from a forceps. By afternoon, they all managed to eat a few meal worms and some hamburger from the forceps. But we still force fed them from time to time. They are gaining weight well.

It is obvious that imprinting in this species, if it occurs at all, is either slow and/or easily reversible at this stage.

The only display of their chicks are vocal. Apparently 3 types of calls.  I shall term these the "Lost Call" (LC), the "Alarm Call" (C) and "Peeping" (P) - at least provisionally.

The LC is composed of long plaintive whistles.  Either single, or separated in 'series' of indeterminate length.  Never repeated very rapidly. 

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