FAMILY TINAMIDAE 1 3 



specimens from Cerro Azul, the Rio Pequeni (Salamanca Hydro- 

 graphic Station), and Mandinga in the western San Bias. To the 

 eastward this race extends into northwestern Colombia through 

 Choco to northern Antioquia and Cordoba. 



On March 7, 1964, at Tacarcuna Village, Darien, when one of 

 these tinamous flushed in dense undergrowth near the bank of the 

 Rio Tacarcuna we found that it had come from a nest beside which 

 rested two chicks a few hours old that proved to be male and female. 

 The nest, the usual shallow depression molded in dried leaves 

 accumulated between two buttressed roots at the base of a large 



Fig. 3. — Crested head of Tinamus major saturatus, the race of the great tinamou 

 found from the Canal Zone through eastern Panama. 



tree, held the shells of the eggs from which the two had hatched, 

 each divided in half near the center. In general pattern the down 

 in the young birds was warm brown on the upper surface, across the 

 breast, and on the sides, with the throat, foreneck, and abdomen 

 grayish white. The side of the head was darker gray, barred nar- 

 rowly with dull black. The lower back and rump were paler than 

 the hindneck and upper back. One, which proved to be a male, is 

 somewhat brighter colored, more reddish brown, with lower back 

 and rump basally warm buff tipped with dull brown dotted faintly 

 with dull black. The front half and sides of the crown are grayish 

 white, barred narrowly and indistinctly with dull gray, with the 

 forehead tinged with brown. A narrow black line borders the 

 brown posterior part of the crown and hindneck, and a similar narrow 



