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 testirhony 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, Lhynchotus 
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 Icteridx. 
TIT,? Icel. Titr (obsol.), Norsk Tifa, 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 Kirry), in 1831 by 
Rennie (Architect. Birds, p. 184); but from its derivation, which 
involves the idea of something small, equally applicable to 
TITLARK or TITLING, Icel. 7itlingr, common names for what 
books call the Meadow-Prrit (p. 727), Anthus pratensis. 
TITMOUSE® (A.-S. Mase and Tytmase, Germ. Meise, Swed. Mes, 
Dutch Mees, French Mésange), 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 Linnzus, and with a very uncertain 
1 Herr von Nathusius has described its microscopic structure (Journ. fir 
wissensch. Zoologie, 1871, pp. 330-355). 
2 It had been thought cognate with the Greek rivis, which criginally 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. 
8 It is by false analogy that the plural of Titmouse is made 7%/mice ; it should 
he Titmouses. A nickname is very often added, as with many other familiar 
English birds, and in this ease it is ‘*Tom.” 
