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45

Aramides cajauea, July 30, 1960 VII   

The other 3 eggs were already pipped. So he collected them all and brought them into the lab and put them under the light. The first egg (WH2) hatched around 9:15 a.m.  The second egg (WB2) was hatched prematurely (by me)around 1:30 p.m. I shall mark all the notes on the behavior of the birds in this second clutch by (?).

All 3 birds have uttered notes in the egg, long before hatching (in the case of the third egg, I know that the bird uttered notes at least 24 hrs before hatching). All the notes uttered before hatching seem to be peeps, or something very similar. The great majority seem to be undistinctive peeps. Single notes, quite loud and clear, without any peculiar features. A few notes seem to be harsher & hoarser, intermediate between typical P's and typical chirps.(It is quite possible that further investigation will show that these harsher notes are, in fact, "real" chirps.) These harsher notes are also always single.

The birds in the egg do not utter notes frequently(less frequently than hatching gull  chicks, I think). They will be silent for minutes on end, then utter 1 note, then fall silent for several more minutes, then utter a second note, etc. etc.

It is quite probable that all the notes uttered by chicks in the egg are distress notes. Once for instance, we got the temperature of the incubation box too high, and the chick in the third egg began to utter a whole series of peeps one right after the other. This is the only time we have heard P's uttered so rapidly. They were all of the undistinctive P type. The bird became silent as soon as we lowered the temperature.

Similarly, when I hatched the second bird artificially and prematurely, it uttered a whole series of loud P's, one right after the other, as I pulled and poked at the egg shell & membranes.