224 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 
ground in a leisurely nggmner, uttering as it walks 
or runs a succession of low whistling notes. It has 
two distinct songs or calls, pleasing to the ear and 
heard all the year round ; but with greater frequency 
in spring, and where the birds are scarce and much 
persecuted, in spring only. One is a succession of 
twenty or thirty short impressive whistling notes of 
great compass, followed by half a dozen rapidly 
uttered notes, beginning loud and sinking lower till 
they cease; the other call is a soft continuous trill, 
which appears to swell mysteriously on the air, for 
the listener cannot tell whence it proceeds; it lasts 
several seconds, and then seems to die away in the 
distance. 
It is an exceedingly rare thing to see this bird 
rise except when compelled. I believe the power of 
flight is used chiefly, if not exclusively, as a means 
of escape from danger. The bird rises up when 
almost trodden upon, rushing through the air with 
a surprising noise and violence. It continues to rise 
at a decreasing angle for fifty or sixty yards, then 
gradually nears the earth, till, when it has got to 
a distance of two or three hundred yards, the violent 
action of the wing ceases and the bird glides along 
close to the earth for some distance, and either 
drops down or renews its flight. I suppose many 
birds fly in much the same way; only this Tinamu 
starts forward with such amazing energy that until 
this is expended and the moment of gliding comes, 
the flight is just as ungovernable to the bird as 
the motion of a brakeless engine, rushing along 
