TINAMOU 963 



Passerine birds which did not well agree with the best known 

 European or American types to the neighbourhood of the genus 

 Timelia, and of founding a subfamily or even a Family for them, 

 was at first harmless, and, indeed, Avhere new forms of the Indian 

 Fauna like Stachi/ris and others were concerned was praiseworthy ; 

 but the practice was presently abused and 

 its reduction to absurdity eftected in the 

 Sixth and Seventh volumes of the British 

 Museum Catalogue of Birds, Avherein toler- 

 ably homogeneous groups of various kinds 

 that had long been accepted by system- 

 atists were broken up and flung upon the 

 heap — the Troglodytidai (Wren), for in- 

 stance, were referred to the Timeliidai, ^'^tT^^^l thoracka. 



,..,.. , (After Swainson.) 



whereas it then- union were necessary the 



Timelias should have been referred to the Wrens. The sole 

 character all these birds were supposed to possess in common 

 was one shared by many others that were excluded, namely, wings 

 short, rounded and " concave," so as to fit close to the body, the last 

 epithet being intended to signify that the remiges were incurved.^ 



TINAMOU, the name given in Guiana to a certain bird as 

 stated in 1741 by Barrere {France Equinoxiale, p. 138), from whom 

 it Avas taken and used in a more general sense by Buffon {Hist A^af. 

 Ois. iv. p. 502). In 1783 Latham {Synops. ii. p. 724) adopted it as 

 English, and in 1790 {Index, ii. p, 633) Latinized it Tiiuinms, as the 

 name of a new and distinct genus. The " Tinamou " of Barrere 

 has been identified with the "Macucagua" described and figured by 

 Marcgrave in 1648, and is the Tinamus major of modern authors.^ 



^ It is due to Dr. Sharpe to observe that he indicates {op. cit. vii. p. 1) the 

 existence of some hidden })0\ver against which he was helpless, and that his 

 "Group VIII. Tinieliw" (p. 504) does not differ very much from that which Mr. 

 Gates subsequently tried with some success to define as a subfamily Timeliinw 

 (with 25 genera found in India alone) of Crateropodidm ; but even that "Group" 

 still includes forms that it is impossible to believe are allied, and the Doctor, 

 in his Address to the International Congress of 1891 (p. 87), though referring 

 with approval to Mr. Gates's attempt, and adopting a few other modifications, 

 stated that he was "not prepared at the present moment to reconsider the 

 Timcliklw." Gut of a heap of road - sweepings a skilful gardener will make a 

 compost that shall produce fragrant flowers, while untended it remains a bed 

 that grows nothing but noisome weeds. Let us hope that Dr. Sharpe, with 

 the extraoi'dinary resources at his command, will one day treat this festering 

 mass so as to obtain from it results that will cause the former unhappy failure 

 to be forgotten and a crop of fair blooms secured that will be worthy of him, 

 for a solution of the Timelian difficulty will indeed be a great feat. 



^ Brisson and after him Linnaeus confounded this bird, which they had never 

 seen, with the Tuumpetek. 



