CHACHALACA 347 



Farmer's experience with the birds there have always seemed to be 

 two females to one male in this courtship. The male seems strictly 

 impartial. Mr. Farmer has had much experience in rearing young 

 chachalacas, and says that, so far as he has observed, they always 

 seem to hatch out in the ratio of two females to one male. He also 

 has, many a time, watched the courtship performance of the male 

 with two females, no other male being tolerated in the vicinity. 



He says that the males fight a great deal at this season. They 

 have no spurs, but fight with bills, feet, and wings, jumping over 

 one another and pecking at one another's backs rather than at the 

 heads, their wing strokes, however, being directed at the head. At 

 this season of the year the males frequently appear with most of 

 the feathers pecked off their backs. 



Mr. Kennard writes to me as follows: 



It is a matter of common report on both sides of the Rio Grande that the 

 chachalacas are used for crossing with game chickens for fighting purposes, the 

 resulting cross being much quicker on its feet than the ordinary game fowl. 

 These reports have, however, never been actually verified by either Mr. Camp 

 or Mr. Farmer and are to be doubted. 



A letter from Mr. Camp confirming this states: 



I do not agree with any of the statements concerning the crossing of the 

 chachalaca with the domestic fowl. I have traveled hundreds of miles and 

 investigated dozens of cases both on this and the other side of the Rio Grande, 

 endeavoring to verify reported hybrids, and at no time have I found a specimen 

 that I would acknowledge was a cross. Last year I investigated quite exten- 

 sively among the natives in the district 125 miles from here, where the cha- 

 chalacas are very abundant and tame for wild birds. Most all Mexican colonies 

 in the district had semidomesticated chachalacas running with their barnyard 

 fowl, but none of the natives would acknowledge that he had ever seen a hybrid. 



Nesting. — The only two nests of the chachalaca that I ever saw were 

 found near the Kesaca de la Palma referred to. On May 27, 1923, 

 they both held sets of three eggs each, heavily incubated. Mr. Sim- 

 mons found the first one; he had been standing under the tree for 

 some time, when he heard the bird fly off from the thick foliage over 

 his head and found the nest Sy 2 feet above the ground. I found the 

 other by seeing the bird fly off, and I had to climb up into the very 

 tops of several slender trees to reach the nest, which was about 18 

 feet up and well concealed in the leafy tops. Both nests were very 

 small, frail structures, made of sticks and leaves and lined with a few 

 green leaves; they were barely large enough to hold the eggs. 



According to Mr. Farmer, nest building is started soon after 

 courtship has begun. He has seen two birds, probably the male and 

 one female, at work on the nest, while the other female was sitting 

 about near by, perhaps helping or perhaps only watching. The 

 nest is a scraggly but strongly built structure of short, stout twigs, 

 so well interlaced as to stand a lot of handling; a particularly well- 



