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62
   
Aramides cajauea, I

August 30, 1960
Barro Colorado

Watched the birds of the first clutch this afternoon.

They all gave AlP's and P's when I first approached their cage. One bird then went down into XC, and uttered a few "ruffled" squawks or squawk-like chirps as it did so. The birds then relaxed a little, after about 2 minutes, and started to run around, uttering P's.

Then I walked away, and approached the cage again about 5 minutes later. All the birds uttered AlP's and P's again as I approached. One bird then ran away in typical running posture, neck stretched forward and low, uttering squawk-like chirps.

(In case I have forgotten to mention it before - this typical running posture, with neck stretched forward and low, is assumed by young chicks as soon as they are able to run properly.)

It seems obvious that the relationship between the AlPs and squawk-like chirps of these birds now is essentially the same as the relationship between their AlP's and "juvenile" chirps when they were younger.

The birds calmed down very rapidly this time. As soon as they were calm, they fell completely silent, and remained silent.

Then I tried some experiments with WH.  It was put in a cage by itself at 4:08 p.m. Just walked about, feeding from time to time. Quite silent, until I finally stopped the experiment at 4:30 p.m. So the LC pattern does seem to have definitely disappeared.

When I went to pick up WH, it ran away quite silently. Also silent when handled.

I finally had to destroy WR2 tonight, as its legs were worse. WH2 seems all right, although some of its toes are permanently crooked.