Caile

A small domesticated bird native to the Locorin Swamp on planet Krell, caile, also known as cailefowl, are practically spherical birds with downy blue plumage, beady black eyes, and thin yellow legs with a beak to match. They forage through the undergrowth in their natural habitats for food and bathe in mud to conceal their colorful plumage from predators. After the worst of the rainy season and the subsequent flooding begins to abate, cailecocks wash their feathers fastidiously, using their flashier indigo coloration to attract as many cailehens as possible as the mating season begins.

Students of history suggest that the Elgan journey to caile domestication began as a means of hunting for fresh food following the isolation of the rainy season, when even young hunters could contribute by tracking down the brightly colored birds. As time went on and cailecoops became part of the Elgan agrarian practice, damage to farm structures during the waning floodwaters necessitated an even safer chore that Elgan children could participate in; searching around the farms and orchards for stray, lilac-colored caile eggs that had been washed away by the receding water.

Modern domesticated caile are typically well groomed and well fed all year round as they are farmed for their delicious meat and eggs, but in agricultural regions, many Tohs enjoy an old fashioned egg hunt to celebrate the end of the floods and the start of spring.