AVES TINAMID^E. 25 



"The female lays five or six eggs, in colour like those of Perdiz 

 grande. The valley of the Rio Negro, usually nine or ten miles 

 in width, is a flat plain, resembling the Buenos-Ayrean Pampa; and 

 wherever long grass and weeds abound the call-notes of the Perdiz 

 cotmm is heard winter and summer; but outside of the valley I have 

 never met with it. 



"The Perdiz chico is nowhere very numerous, but seems thinly, and 

 equally distributed everywhere on the high bush-covered tablelands, and, 

 like the Martineta, is partial to places abounding in thin scrub. They 

 have a shy disposition, and, when approached, spring up and run away 

 with the same appearance of terror exhibited by the Martineta. Some- 

 times, when running, they utter low whistling notes like the Perdiz 

 comun; their flight is higher, and produces far less sound than that of 

 Perdiz comun. They have but one call note a succession of short 

 notes, like those of the other species, but without the quick concluding 

 notes ; this call is only heard in the breeding season. Its eggs are like 

 those of the Pampa bird. It is never found in the moist, grassy places 

 frequented by the Perdiz comun." 



I have included some remarks regarding Perdiz chico, of which Mr. 

 Hudson sent skins to Dr. Sclater from the point in question. These were 

 identified by Dr. Sclater as N. darwini. (Cf. footnote, P. Z. S., 1872, p. 

 547). The cpmparison of the two species by Mr. Hudson and his com- 

 ments seem conclusive. 



Darwin speaks of two species of Nothura ; of Nothura major ( = N. 

 tnac^tlosa} he says: "These birds are very common on the northern shores 

 of the Plata. They do not rise in coveys, but generally by pairs. They 

 do not conceal themselves nearly so closely as the English partridge, and 

 hence great numbers may be seen in riding across the open, grassy plains. 

 Note, a shrill whistle. It appears a very silly bird : a man on horseback, 

 by riding round and round in a circle, or rather in a spire, so as to ap- 

 proach closer each time, may knock on the head almost as many as he 

 pleases. The more common method is to catch them with a running 

 noose, or little lazo, made of the stem of an ostrich's feather, fastened to 

 the end of a long stick. A boy on a quiet horse will frequently thus 

 catch thirty or forty a day. The flesh of this bird, when cooked, is most 

 delicately white, but rather tasteless." (Darwin, Zool. " Voy. Beagle," 

 III, p. 119, 1841.) 



