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65

Aramides cajauea, I.          

September 17, 1960   
Barro Colorado

When I approached WH2's cage this afternoon, ca. 5:00 p.m., it uttered a few P's, and then ran away silently. Then it stood and uttered LC notes, at first very soft, then becoming louder.

Then I chased it a long time, trying to catch it. It ran away very rapidly, continuing to run a long time without any attempt to crouch. Most of this escape running was quite silent, but once the bird uttered 3 or 4 very soft clucks. When I finally caught the bird, it uttered a lot of chirps. These chirps were loud and shrill, but not squawk-like). After the bird had been held firmly for some time, it stopped uttering chirps and began to utter clucks. The transition was absolutely abrupt!(This would suggest that the chicks do not develop by gradual (?) from the chirps). The first clucks were remarkably soft - so much  so that I thought that they were nothing more than the pounding of the birds heart - but they gradually became louder, until they were almost or completely as loud as the chicks uttered by the birds of the first clutch. It was noticeable that the chicks started, and the chirps stopped, at the moment when the bird stopped struggling violent in my hand.  It continued to utter clucks as long as it remained more or less passive in my hands. After a minute or so, it began to struggle violently again, for a second or so. It stopped uttering clucks, and began to utter chirps again, as soon as it started to struggle again. Then stopped chirps and began to utter clucks again when it stopped struggling and became passive again. This alternation of struggling and chirps with passivity & (?) was repeated several times.

All the chirps were accompanied by opening and closing of the