NOTHURA DARWINI. 213 



round and round, striking the earth a very few yards from the spot 

 where it rose, and crushing itself to a pulp with the tremendous force 

 of the fall. It is very easy to guess the cause of such an accident : 

 while the Tinamou struggled blindly to go forward, the violent wind, 

 catching the under surface of the wings, forced it upwards, until the 

 poor bird, becoming hopelessly confused, fell back to earth. I have 

 often seen a swallow, gull, or hawk, soaring about in a high wind, 

 suddenly turn the under surface of its wings to the wind and instantly 

 shoot straight up, apparently without an effort, to a vast height, then 

 recover itself, and start off in a fresh direction. The Tinamou, when 

 once launched on the atmosphere, is at the mercy of chance; neverthe- 

 less, had this incident been related to me by a stranger, I should not 

 have recorded it. 



This Tinamou is frequently run down and caught by well-mounted 

 Gaucho boys ; the bird frequently escapes into a kennel in the earth, but 

 when it sees no refuge before it and is hotly pursued, it sometimes 

 drops dead. When caught in the hand they {( feign death " or swoon, 

 but on being released quickly recover their faculties. 



The nest is a slight hollow scratched in the ground under a thistle or 

 in the grass, and lined with a few dry leaves. The number of eggs laid 

 varies from five to eight. These are elliptical, with polished shells, and 

 as a rule are of a wine-purple colour ; but the hue varies somewhat, 

 some eggs having a reddish tinge and others a deep liver-colour. 



431. NOTHURA DARWINI, Gray. 



(DARWIN'S TINAMOU.) 



[PLATE XX.] 



Nothura minor, Darwin, Zool. Toy. ' Beagk? iii. p. 119 (Bahia Blanca). 

 Nothura darwini, Gray, List of Gall. B. M. p. 104 (1867) ; Scl P. Z. S. 

 1872, p. 547. Nothura maculosa, Durnford, Ibis, 1877, p. 45 (Chupat). 

 Nothura perdicaria, Durnford, Ibis, 1878, p. 405 (Centr. Patagonia). 



Description. Above cinereous ; feathers of head and back marked with 

 narrow black and fulvous cross bands and margined with bright ashy-white 

 edgings ; wings ashy black, crossed on both webs by fulvous bands, except in 

 the two outer primaries : beneath pale fulvous, throat white ; breast more 

 cinereous, and densely covered with indistinct black and brown cross bars and 

 whitish-grey streaks ; flanks and lower belly with irregular black cross bars ; 

 bill horn-colour; lower mandible and feet yellowish: whole length 8'5 inches, 

 wing 5'4, tall 2*4. 



Hub. Northern Patagonia. 



