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26

Aramides cajauea, July 5, 1960 VIII    

I think that the "Peep Complex" of these birds, at this stage, can be divided into the following more or less distinct patterns:

1. PP. Presumably a pattern of moderate intensity. Almost (?) completely non-hostile. Possibly produced by moderate thwarting of moderately strong gregarious motivation.

2. AlP. Obviously hostile. Obviously produced when the escape drive in much stronger than any counter-acting motivation (but not as relatively strong as when a bird is escaping silently).

3. RP. This is a puzzle. Probably not eventually hostile. Probably purely a (?) intention movement produced when a bird is trying to get somewhere but hasn't got there yet?

4. Trills (?). These sound like nothing more than exaggerated RP. But they do seem to be hostile. They might, nevertheless, be nothing more than high intensity RP. Perhaps it is only in hostile circumstances that these animals want to go someplace very strongly without being able to get there??? In any case, the hostility usually associated with Trills (?) seems to be largely or completely escape (see below). But escape may be relatively less predominant during Trills than during AlP's.

It is possible that these birds also (or still) have a 5th category of peeps. Single notes of not very distinctive quality. Not very long or loud or plaintive. Presumably low intensity. Possibly a low intensity generalized distress pattern. Or perhaps these anomalous peeps are really heterogeneous. Low intensity versions of all the other peep patterns. (These last 2 alternatives may actually be 2 different ways of describing the same thing.)

I have yet to see these birds perform anything like unmistakable attack or predominately aggressive patterns. Rather surprising, as