52 



NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



struthious group, yet," as Parker puts it. According to this authority, the wings also 

 seem to be struthious rather than gallinaceous, for in the humerus the crest for the 

 insertion of the pectoralis major is not turned over as in the fowl ; this answers to 

 the extreme (struthious) thinness of that muscle in the tinamou, this bird having but 

 little power to depress his wings. He can elevate them, however. It is highly inter- 

 esting, he says, to see the tinamou lift his 

 wings, just in the same manner as the ostrich 

 elevates hers. The tinamou's "organs of 

 flight " are still much more rudimentary 

 than those of the fowl, seeing that they are 

 constructed far more for elevation than 

 for depression, the latter movement being 

 the one so necessary to flight. 



Again the pelvic arch presents the very 

 mark common to the birds we have hitherto 

 treated of, namely, that the ischium is not 

 united with the backward extension of the 

 ilium by bone, as is the case in all other 

 birds. To the struthious character of the 

 breast-muscles corresponds peculiarities of 

 the muscles of the legs, of which the ac- 

 cessory femoro-caudal has a slip arising 

 above the sciatic foramen, found elsewhere, 

 according to Garrod, only in the Struthiones. 

 Finally, Dr. Nathusius has found that the 

 minute structure of the tinamou egg-shells 

 is quite different from those of the true Gal- 

 linae, in that respect showing most resem- 

 blance to Apteryx. 



Among external characters may be men- 

 tioned that the bill is depressed, and the 

 mouth split open to under the eyes ; the 

 head is comparatively small, the neck 

 rather long and narrow. The wings are 

 short and rounded, the tail feathers con- 

 cealed under the coverts, or altogether absent. The feet are provided with a rather 

 short hind toe, elevated from the ground. Powder-downs are present among the 

 feathers, and in some the feathers have aftershafts. 



Several genera with a number of species, about fifty, distributed in two sub-families, 

 are recognized from Central and South America, where they are usually known as 

 Perdiz, partridge, being in fact, as game birds, a kind of substitutes for true Gallinae. 

 Their size ranges between that of a ruffed grouse and a ring plover. They are emi- 

 nently ground-birds, which never perch on trees or shrubs. 



The largest and best known species is the Perdiz grande or 1' Ynambu (Rhyncho- 

 tus rufescens) from Brazil southward. It is of a rusty yellow, banded crosswise 

 on the upper surface with blackish ; bill rather long, with the nostrils in the basal 

 part, hind toe well developed, and tail feathers short and soft. Mr. Hudson, having 

 the opportunity of studying the habits of several species of tmamou, has published 



FIG. 21. Crypturus megapodius. 



