﻿426 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. lOO 



able to determine whether both sexes call. During the breeding 

 season the birds decoy readily to an imitation of the call, and it is 

 then that most of the hunting is done. The few birds taken by the 

 collector by this method were all males. However, other hunters 

 have assured him that the females also decoy readily. 



Seeds and fruit pulp were found in the gizzards of the three speci- 

 mens taken. 



In the collector's experience this tinamou is strictly terrestrial. He 

 never saw the bird except on the ground, and only once did he see it 

 fly. It flushed like a large quail when it was cornered. When the 

 bird was encountered in the woods it customarily ran rapidly with 

 outspread wings, possibly using them to assist it in zigzagging through 

 the underbrush. 



CRYPTURELLUS IDONEUS (Todd) 



Crypturus idoneus Todd, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. 32, 1919, p. 117 

 (Bonda, Colombia). 



SPECIMENS COLLECTED 



1 d^, Cantaura, May 23, 1946; gonads very much enlarged; iris light brown, 

 tarsi and toes coral-red; gizzard contained seeds and fruit pulp. 



1 9 , Cantaura, June 15, 1948; gonads enlarged; iris tan, feet coral-red, maxilla 

 brown, mandible light brown. Bird found injured beside the road. 



These specimens have been compared and found to agree closely 

 with six males and thi-ee females from northern Colombia. They 

 extend the known range of idoneus eastward a long distance, as the 

 form was previously known only from northern Colombia (northern 

 Magdalena and Santa Marta) and from the state of Zulia in adjacent 

 western Venezuela. 



Hellmayr and Conover (Catalogue of the birds of the Americas, pt. 1, 

 No. 1, 1942, p. 65) write that C. idoneus differs from Venezuelan examples 

 of C. n. erythropus in having the underparts paler, the breast cinnamon- 

 buff to wood brown instead of ochraceous-tawny, and becoming much 

 paler still on the abdomen, and, in female specimens, by having the 

 backs less rufescent with the pale cross markings paler, less ochraceous. 

 This is all borne out by these examples. 



These same authors go on to say that further study may show C. 

 idoneus and C cinnamomeus to be conspecific with C. noctivagus 

 erythropus, but they tentatively keep the three as specific entities. 

 The fact that the present two specimens of idoneus were collected in 

 the same general area as one of C. n. erythropus indicates that they 

 should be kept as distinct species until more is learned about them, 

 although they are closely similar to each other. 



The injured female laid an egg before it died. This egg is similar in 

 size and shape to one of C. idoneus from Carraipa, Guajira, Colombia, 

 but paler, very light bluish white, not pale olive-gray as is the Colom- 



