the West Mexican Chachalaca, a bird (see Hunn, attestations); the name of the bird mimics the sound it makes, as do various words beginning with cacala- and chachala- (an onomatopoetic word)
CHACHALACAME-TL, onomatopoetic, West Mexican Chachalaca (Ortalis poliocephala) [FC: 53 Chachalacametl] “It is the same size as the [Great-tailed Grackle]. It is somewhat yellow all over…. Its food is fruit; also maize kernels, ground maize. It nests in inaccessible parts of trees. And it sings in winter. It is called chachalacametl because if a number of them settle together, only one begins to sing; then all sing. And the neck is like a turkey neck, only very small….” Martin del Campo identifies this as the “Common chachalaca” (Ortalis vetula). However, on distributional grounds, the chachalaca most likely to have been known well to the Aztecs was the West Mexican Chachalaca, though it is likely the Aztecs did not distinguish the various species of this genus, as their distributions do not overlap. The name is clearly onomatopoetic.