500 THE ELEGANT TINAMOV. 



their wings, trusting rather to the swiftness of their legs. Of one species of Tinamou, Mr. 

 Darwin writes as follows: "These birds do not go in coveys, nor do they conceal themselves 

 like the English kind. It appears a very silly bird. A man on horseback, by riding round 

 and round in a circle, or rather in a spire, so as to approach closer each time, may knock on 

 the head as many as he pleases. The more common method is to catch them with a running 

 noose or little lasso, made of the stem of an ostrich's feather, fastened to the end by a long 

 stick. A boy on a quiet old horse will frequently thus catch thirty or forty in a day." 



The food of the Tinamous consists mostly of grain ; and after the fields of corn and maize 

 are sown, these birds do considerable damage by running over the ground, and picking out all 

 the seeds which have not been entirely covered by the soil. The eggs of the^e birds are about 

 seven or eight in number, and are laid in the centre of some convenient tuft of herbage. 



The Elegant Tinamou is a native of Chili, and is rather larger than the' generality of its 

 kind, as it slightly exceeds a grouse in dimensions, and has a much longer neck. The head 

 and neck are light grayish buff with short delicate longitudinal streaks, and upon the head 

 there is a long curved crest, each feather being brown with a dark streak along its centre. The 

 back is spotted and barred with buff and blackish-brown, and on the breast and general under- 

 surface the feathers are irregularly barred with the same hue, the bars being wider and darker 

 on the flanks. 



