16 Supplement to the History

On Indian Quails

These birds are somewhat similar to our own quails, although they are more properly categorized among the partridges. Many varieties are found in New Spain. Some are dusky and crested, which they call *Quauhtzonecolin*, and are of medium size. Others are also dusky but lack crests and are slightly smaller. Another type is the largest of all and tawny, but with a head patterned in black and white, while the wingtips and back are whitish. Their feet and beaks are black. All these types make excellent food for humans and please the palate, provided they are slaughtered three days before being served at the table. Indeed, their meat is given to the sick and infirm; the Indians have no other meat that can be preferred to this, after that of domestic poultry. They sing much like our native birds, though some more sweetly than others. They are kept in wicker cages and fed on both Indian and local corn.

Another bird, called the *Coyolcozque*, is a species of Mexican quail that resembles our own in size, song, diet, flight, and habits, though it is endowed with a different color. Its upper parts are a mixture of tawny and white, while the underside is purely tawny—except for the crown and neck, which are covered in black and white feathers. The eyes are black and the legs tawny. It is a native bird and lives on the same food common to our own quails.

There is another species called the *Acolin*, similar in size to a starling, with legs and feet of a pale green divided into four long toes. The beak is yellow and somewhat long in proportion to its body, as well as thin and pointed. The eyes are black, surrounded by a tawny iris, though the body itself is small. The underside of the body is white, with the sides spotted with a dusky color. The upper parts and the rather short tail are tawny, marked with blackish spots and white lines surrounding each of the feathers. It is a bird native to the Mexican lakes, where it usually feeds on flies and other small creatures flying near the water.

On the Indian Red-Wing

A certain bird, notable for the marking on its wings and called the *Acolchichi*, has earned an honorable name among the Spaniards because of its reddish shoulders; indeed, they call birds of this type *Comendadoras*, as they mimic the insignia of military knights that shine with red on their sides. They are equal to starlings in size, color, and shape, and are found wherever starlings are; however, their shoulders appear tawny at first, tending toward red, and then, with the passage of time and age, this redness degenerates entirely into a tawny color. They are sometimes kept in cages, for they chatter charmingly and imitate human voices, even if they are allowed to walk freely through the house. They eat almost anything, but especially bread and Indian corn. They are found in both hot and cold regions, nesting in trees not far from human habitation, and they devastate the fields where they happen to settle. Finally, the meat of these animals provides a juice that is not unpleasant, though hardly the most delicious.