326 



Bird - Lore 



IN THE CHACHALACA COUNTRY, CAMERON COUNTY, TEXAS. A RETOUCHED 

 PICTURE OF ONE OF THE BIRDS MAY BE SEEN* IN THE BACKGROUND 



fact that we were probably viewing one of 

 the largest Heron colonies left in this 

 country. Surely it contained the largest 

 number of Reddish Egrets of any known 

 colony of these birds within our borders. 

 We estimated the entire population of Red- 

 dish Egrets, Ward's Herons, Louisiana 

 Herons, Black-crowned Night Herons and 

 Snowy Egrets to be anywhere from 5,000 

 to 10,000. The Reddish Egret was easily 

 the dominating species and we were greatly 

 interested to find twenty or more of them 

 to be in the white phase of plumage. Steps 

 have been taken to extend adequate 

 protection to this rookery of breeding 

 birds. 



The Brownsville region is a realm of in- 



terest to the ornithologist. Here, back in 

 the eighties, the ornithologist, Sennett, 

 discovered many birds not before recorded 

 in the United States. It was while hunting 

 for a breeding colony of Mexican Cormo- 

 rants that, on June 6, I had the pleasure 

 of seeing some of these rarieties of the 

 Southeast. One was the Chachalaca or 

 Guan, the only representative of the Family 

 found in this country. In a superficial 

 way, perhaps, it resembles a Pheasant 

 more than any other American bird. Being 

 highly esteemed for food, and therefore 

 persistently sought by local gunners, it is 

 fast disappearing over the two or three 

 counties of southeastern Texas which 

 seems to constitute its entire range in the 



A CHACHALACA THIRTEEN MONTHS OLD, HATCHED WD REARED l\ 

 often raised by Dm- Mexicans along the Rio Grande River 



