966 TINKER— TITMOUSE 



unlike those of other birds; and, as before stated (p. 187), their 

 shell ^ looks as if it were of highly -burnished metal or glazed 

 porcelain, presenting also various colours, which seem to be constant 

 in the particular species, from pale primrose to sage-green or light 

 indigo, or from chocolate-brown to pinkish-orange. All who have 

 eaten it declare the flesh of the Tinamou to have a most delicate 

 taste, just as it has a most inviting appearance, the pectoral muscles 

 being semi-opaque. Of their habits not much has been told. Darwin 

 {Journal, chap, iii.) has remarked upon the silliness they shew in 

 allowing themselves to be taken, and this, being wholly in accord- 

 ance with what Parker observes of their brain capacity, is an 

 additional testimony to their low morphological rank. At least 

 one species of Tinamou has bred not unfrequently in confinement, 

 and an interesting account of what would have been a successful 

 attempt by Mr. John Bateman to naturalize this species, Rhynchotus 

 rufescens, in England, at Brightlingsea in Essex, appeared in The 

 Field (23rd Feb. 1884 and 12th Sept. 1885). The experiment un- 

 fortunately failed owing to the destruction of the birds by foxes. 



TINKER or TINKERSHIRE, one of the many names of the 

 Guillemot. 



TINKLING or TIN-TIN, the name in Jamaica for one of the 

 American Grackles (p. 379), Quiscalus crassirostris (Gosse, B. Jam. 

 p. 217) belonging to the Family Ideridse. 



TIT,2 Icel. Titr (obsol.), Norsk Tita, Old. Engl. Tidee and 

 other forms (p. 962), a vulgar abbreviation of TiTMOUSE, apparently 

 first used, except as a provincialism (when it often means the 

 Wren and possibly gave rise to the nickname Kitty), in 1831 by 

 Rennie {Architect. Birds, p. 134); but from its derivation, which 

 involves the idea of something small, equally applicable to 



TITLARK or TITLING, Icel. Titlingr, common names for what 

 books call the Meadow-PiPiT (p. 727), Anthus pratensis. 



TITMOUSE 3 (A.-S. Mase and Tytmase, Germ. Meise, Swed. Mes, 

 Dutch Mees, French Misange), the name long in use for several 

 species of small English birds, which are further distinguished 

 from one another by some characteristic appellation. These go to 

 make up the genus Parus of Linnaeus, and with a very uncertain 



^ HetT vou Natliusius has described its microscopic structure (Jown. fiir 

 wissensch. Zoologie, 1871, pp. 330-355). 



2 It had been thought cognate with the Greek tit/s, which originally meant 

 a small chirping bird {Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 4, x. p. 227) ; but Prof. Skeat informs 

 me that no connexion between them is possible. 



^ It is by false analogy that the plural of Titmouse is made Titmice ; it should J 

 be Titmouses. A nickname is very often added, as with many other familiar 

 English birds, and in this case it is "Tom." 



