We describe an L -band photometric survey of \sim 0.5 deg ^ { 2 } of the Cha I dark cloud .
The survey has a completeness limit of L < 11.0 .
Our survey detects 124 sources , including all known pre-main sequence stars with L \leq 11 .
The fraction of sources with near-IR excess emission is 58 % \pm 4 % for K = 9–11 .
Cha I sources have bluer H - K and K - L colors than pre-main sequence stars in Taurus-Auriga .
These sources also have a strong correlation between EW ( H \alpha ) and K - L .
Stars with K - L \leq 0.6 have weak H \alpha emission ; stars with K - L \geq 0.6 have strong H \alpha emission .
Because many Cha I sources are heavily reddened , this division between weak emission T Tauri stars and classical T Tauri stars occurs at a redder K - L than in Taurus-Auriga .