RUFOUS TINAMU 22% 
RUFOUS TINAMU 
Rhynchotus rufescens 
Above cinereous ; head, wings, and back crossed by black bars with 
pale ochraceous edgings ; neck reddish; primaries chestnut ; beneath 
pale cinereous, strongly tinged with rufous on the neck and breast ; 
chin white; bill ashy, beneath at base yellowish; feet dark flesh- 
colour ; length 14, wing 9.5 inches. Female similar, but larger. 
Tuts large Tinamu, known to the Argentines as 
the Perdiz grande, or Great Partridge, is found on 
the pampas wherever long grasses abound, and 
extends as far south as the Colorado river, its place 
being taken in Patagonia by Calodromas elegans, It 
is never met with in woods or thickets, and requires 
no shelter but the giant grasses, through which it 
pushes like a Rail. Wherever the country becomes 
settled and the coarse indigenous grasses are replaced 
by those of Europe, it quickly disappears, so that it 
is already extinct over a great portion of the Buenos- 
Ayrean pampas. 
This species is solitary in its habits, conceals itself 
very closely in the grass, and flies with the greatest 
reluctance. I doubt if there is anywhere a bird with 
such a sounding flight as the Tinamu; the whirr 
of its wings can only be compared to the rattling of 
a vehicle driven at great speed over a stony road. 
From the moment it rises until it alights again there 
is no cessation in the rapid vibration of the wings ; 
but, like a ball thrown by hand, the bird flies straight 
