320 



TiNAMus, Lath — Ckypturus, lUig — Ynambus*, Azz. 



The Tinamoos constitute a genus of American birds very remarkable 

 for a slender and long neck (although their tarsi are short), covered with 

 feathers, the tips of whose barbs are slender and slightly curled, which 

 gives a very peculiar air to that part of their plumage. The bill is long, 

 slender, and blunt at the end; somewhat arched, with a little groove on 

 each side ; the nostrils are pierced in the middle of each side, and pene- 

 trate obliquely backwards. Their wings are short, and they have scarcely 

 any tail. The membrane between the base of the toes is very short. 

 Their thumb, reduced to a spur, cannot reach the ground. The circum- 

 ference of the eye is partly naked. They either perch on low branches 

 of trees, or hide among tall grass; they feed on fruit and insects, and 

 their flesh is good. Their size varies from that of the Pheasant down to 

 that of the Quail, some of them are even still smaller. 



One portion of them, — the Pezus of Spix, — is furnished with a small 

 tail concealed under the feathers of the rump-j". 



In the other, — the Tinamoos of Spix, there is no vestige of a tail;};. 

 Their nostrils are placed a little farther back. 



We should distinguish the Rynchotus, Spix, whose bill, which is 

 stronger, has no groove, and is slightly arcuated and depressed; the nos- 

 trils are pierced near the base 1|. 



CoLUMBA, Lin. 



The Pigeons may be considered as forming a slight transition from the 

 Gallinaceas to the Passerinae. Like the former, their bill is vaulted, the 

 nostrils perforated in a broad membranous space, and covered with a carti- 

 laginous scale, which even forms a bulge at the base of the bill; the bony 

 sternum is deeply and doubly emarginated, although in a direction some- 

 what differently ; the crop extremely dilated, and the lower larynx furnished 

 with but a single proper muscle ; but there is no other membrane be- 

 tween the base of their toes than that which results from the continuity 

 of the edges. Their tail is composed of twelve quills. They fly well, 

 live in a state of monogamy, build on trees, or in the crevices of rocks, 

 and lay but few eggs at a time, generally two ; it is true they lay fre- 



* Except his Choro, which is a Gallinula, and his Uru, which is the Tocro already 

 tpoken of among the Partridges. 



f Tetr. major, Gm., or Tin. IradUensis, Lath., or the Tm. magoua. Tern.; Buff. 

 Enl. 476, and much hetter, Hist, des Oi.s. IV, 4to, pi. xxiv; it is the Pezus serratus, 

 Spix; — Tetr. einereus ; — Tctr. variegatns, Enl. 328, from which the Tin. undulatus, 

 T., or Crijpturn sijlvicola, Vieill. Gal. 216, can differ but little; — Tin. apequia (T. obso- 

 htiis. Tern.), Col. 196;— 77n. tafaupa, Swains. 111. 19, or T. plumbeus, T. Col. 196, or 

 PiZKS niaviba, Spix, 78, a;—Tinanitts noctivogus, Pr. Max , or Pczus zabelt, .Sp. 77; — 

 Ti7i. macaco, ox vermicide {T. a(/spersus,T.), Col. 369, or Pezus vapura, Sp. 78; — Telr. 

 sori, Gm., or Tin. sovi. Lath. Buff., Enl. 829. 



j Tin. inambui, Azz. {f. mactilosus, L), or T. major, Sp. 80; — T. medius, Spix, 81; 

 — 7'. boraqtdra, Sp. 79; — T. carope (T. pavoninus, T.), of which the Tinam. minor, Sp. 

 SI, ap'i'cars to be the female. These three species are verj- similar. 



II The Tinamou isabelln {T, rvftscens, T.), Col. 412; or Rhinchotus fascialus, Spix, 

 76. 



