SENNETT ON BIRDS OF THE RIO GRANDE OF TErAS. 51 



ican Birds"; but I must take issue on a few points, particularly in re- 

 gard to its breeding habits. In the vicinity of Brownsville, the heavy 

 timber being scarce, I saw none, and only heard them a few times in 

 the heaviest chaparral. Hidalgo is in the very heart of their habitat 

 within our limits, and my facilities for observing them at that point were 

 very good indeed. Mornings and evenings we could hear them from 

 every direction, and whenever we went into the woods they were always 

 observed. One is sure to find them where dense thickets of undergrowth 

 are under large trees. At the time I was with them they were in pairs, 

 and generally a number of pairs would be in one locality. The sexes 

 are similar in appearance, and their notes alike, excepting that the 

 female's note is pitched higher. Its notes are loud and simply inde- 

 scribable. If you will sound the word cha-cha-la-ca in rapid succession 

 in the loudest possible whisper, always accenting the last two syllables, 

 you will give to yourself, but to no one else, some idea of their love 

 songs. The loudness and hoarseness are the same io both sexes, and 

 one answers the other so closely that it is hard to distinguish their 

 notes, although one may be closely observing them. Their concerts 

 take place mornings, evenings, and at all hours on dark days. They 

 are at such times in the tops of the trees, and, if alarmed, at once give 

 the warning note, and sail, with spread wings, down into the thickets, 

 becoming instantly quiet. The woods which a moment before resounded 

 with a deafening noise of an uncertain number of these birds (it is im- 

 possible to judge by the sound whether few or many are engaged in 

 their concerts) is now still as death. Those unobserved and farthest 

 off will, when they feel reassured, start up their cry, and set the whole 

 company to screaming again. Several times, when well concealed, I 

 have noticed a pair spring from a thicket into a large tree, jump from 

 limb to limb close to the body until they reached the top, when they 

 would walk out to the end of the branch and begin their song. They 

 roost in trees, and hunters frequently get them at night. Rarely did I 

 see them on the ground. Once, while resting in a mezquite grove, 

 which looked very much like a peach-orchard on a well-kept lawn, I 

 saw a Ohachalaca trot out from a neighboring thicket in full view. He 

 seemed looking for food on the ground. He discovered me, and we 

 eyed each other for a moment, when it turned, ran a short distance, 

 sprang into the lower branches of a tree, and, hopping along from tree 

 to tree, disappeared into the thicket about five feet from the ground. 

 They are very fond of blackberries, which were then getting ripe. 

 Another peculiarity of this bird is that the male alone has the trachea 

 doubled over some three or four inches on the muscles of the breast, 

 directly under the skin. Their meat is white, and most excellent eating. 

 Of their crossing with the common game fowl, and thereby producing 

 the superior fighting-cocks for which the Mexicans are so noted, I saw 

 no proof, but it is accepted as true by everybody in the region. They 



