Guans, or Chachalacas 275 



Derbian Guan. One of the most interesting and at the same time one of 

 the rarest of those in which the bill is broader than high is the so-called 

 Mountain Pheasant, or Derbian Guan (Oreophasis derbianus), which is mainly 

 confined to the woods about the Volcan de Fuego, Guatemala. It has a 

 straight, slender, cylindrical casque on the top of the head between the eyes, 

 this together with the legs and feet being deep vermilion in color. These 

 birds seek their food, which consists largely of the fruits of a kind of plum, 

 in the early morning and evening among the high trees, but during the middle 

 of the day they descend to the ground, where they remain basking and scratch- 

 ing among the leaves. The nest and eggs are not known. 



The Guans, or Chachalacas (Ortalis), constitute the larger genus among the 

 Curassows, numbering twenty or more species and subspecies. The sexes 

 are similar in appearance, the colors being plain olive-brownish or olive -grayish 

 above, darker on the tail, and chestnut-rufous, light brownish, or whitish below. 

 The top of the head is feathered and without the casque or helmet characteristic 

 of certain of the other Curassows, and there is a band of these feathers down 

 the middle of the otherwise naked throat. We may mention briefly the Cha- 

 chalaca (O. vetula maccalli), the only form reaching the United States. Of the 

 habits of this species in southern Texas the late Dr. J. C.Merrill wrote as follows: 

 "The ' Chachalac,' as the present species is called on the lower Rio Grande, 

 is one of the most characteristic birds of that region. Rarely seen any distance 

 from the woods or dense chaparral, they are abundant in those places, and 

 their hoarse cries are the first thing heard by the traveler on awakening in 

 the morning. During the day, unless rainy or cloudy, the birds are rarely seen 

 or heard, but shortly before sunrise and sunset they mount the topmost branches 

 of a dead tree, and make the woods ring with their discordant notes. Con- 

 trary to almost every description of their cry which I have seen, it consists of 

 three syllables, though occasionally a fourth is added. When the bird begins 

 to cry, the nearest bird joins in at the second note, and in this way the fourth 

 syllable is made; but they keep such good time that it is often very difficult to 

 satisfy oneself that this is the fact. I cannot say certainly whether the female 

 utters this cry as well as the male, but there is a well-marked anatomical dis- 

 tinction in the sexes in regard to the development of the trachea. In the male 

 this passes down the outside of the pectoral muscles, beneath the skin, to within 

 one inch of the end of the sternum; it then doubles on itself and passes up, 

 still on the right side of the keel, to descend within the thorax in the usual man- 

 ner. This duplicature is wanting in the female . . . Easily domesticated, they 

 become troublesomely familiar and decided nuisances when kept about the 

 house." The nests in this vicinity were placed in the dense mesquite bushes, 

 especially where the limbs had been cut away, and in the cluster of branches 

 thus left there usually accumulated a mass of leaves and twigs within which 

 the nest was rudely shaped. The eggs number from three to five. Similar 

 to the Guans are the Penelopes (Penelope), but distinguished among other 

 things by having the chin and throat usually naked and provided with a central 

 wattle, and a large, naked space around the eye. Their habits are similar to 

 those of the other members of the group. 



