TLALALACA-TL, Black-bellied Whistling Duck (Dendrocygna autumnalis) (FC:27) Tlalalacatl] “Also they call it “[Totolin ].” It is large. The legs are chili-red…. [The bill] is ashen; the back is rounded… It has downy feathers; its down is used for capes….” Also identified by Martin del Campo as the Greater White-fronted Goose. However, as noted above, that species is not known to occur regularly in Central Mexico and certainly does not have “chili-red feet.” The only likely species that fits that detail is the Black-bellied Whistling Duck, a common nesting species on both Mexican coasts that strays to the highlands in the off season (Howell & Webb). In FC 57 it is noted that “Tlalalacatl: The goose, or atlatlalacatl, or atototl, comes from the west." Then below “Concanauhtli: The goose breeds here among the reeds.” Then, “The Çoquicanauhtli (Zoquicanauhtli) is the same as the goose . It also breeds among the reeds. However, its feathers are smoky, sooty.” Since no true goose is known to have nested in Central Mexico, I believe what has been translated as “goose” are the whistling-ducks (Dendrocygna spp.), Black-bellied and Fulvous (D. autumnalis, D. bicolor). See also ZOQUI-CANAUH-TLI.
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 11 – Earthly Things, no. 14, Part XII, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1963); Rafael Martín del Campo, “Ensayo de interpretación del Libro Undecimo de la Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España de Fray Bernardino de Sahagún – 11 Las Aves (1),” Anales del Instituto de Biología Tomo XI, Núm. 1 (México, D.F., 1940); Steven N. G. Howell and Sophie Webb. A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America (Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York, Tokyo, 1995); and, with quotation selections, synthesis, and analysis here also appearing in E. S. Hunn, "The Aztec Fascination with Birds: Deciphering Sixteenth-Century Sources," unpublished manuscript, 2022, cited here with permission.
Ā-TLATLALACA-TL, synonym of TLALALACA-TL.
E. S. Hunn, "The Aztec Fascination with Birds: Deciphering Sixteenth-Century Sources," unpublished manuscript, 2022, cited here with permission.