WAYS OF TINAMOU 263 



the glade with our colorful treasures, an equally brilliant, 

 blue morpho butterfly flapped slowly past. Such were some 

 of the surroundings of this tinamou nest of early April. 



There seems to be much variation in the number of eggs 

 of this species. Eight is not uncommon, but the sets of ten 

 and twelve which have been reported are very unusual. I 

 found several instances where sets of four and six were being 

 incubated. The shells were spheroidal, highly burnished, as 

 in all tinamou, and light turquoise blue in color. The aver- 

 age measurement was 57 x 47 mm. 



The eye of this tinamou was dark hazel, and its facial 

 skin leaden blue. The legs and feet were a peculiar green- 

 blue grey or in young birds a clear celandine green ; the bill 

 was a dark bluish horn, with the lower mandible lighter. An 

 average bird showed the following measurements: bill, 34 

 mm.; wing, 247; tail, 87; middle toe and claw, 41 mm. 



The females averaged slightly larger than the males, 

 the extremes being 420 and 477 mm. The sexes were equal 

 in weight, from 1.5 to 2.75 Ibs. The food was wholly vege- 

 table, consisting chiefly of seeds swallowed whole, pink, 

 green, brown or yellow, resembling acorns or nuts of various 

 shapes. The favorite food was the seed of the monkey-pots 

 (Lecythis) . 



When the skin was removed, the flesh was of a strange 

 greenish-grey color, most unhealthy in appearance, but deli- 

 cate and delicious when cooked. 



There seemed to be but slight difference between the 

 sexes. The males were, as a rule, more rufous and less olive 

 than the females. In full-plumaged males the forehead and 

 crown were blue-black with the chestnut nape and hind 

 crown sharply set off. In a large series of females the black- 

 ened area extended over the whole crown and forehead. 



Even the birds in most perfect plumage, showed signs 

 of the serious effect of the bete rouge. The nape and back of 

 the neck of almost every bird, like the cheeks of the agoutis, 

 were bare and mangy, and dotted with scarlet clumps of 



