320 BIRDS. 
Tinamus, Lath.—Cryprturus, Illig.—YNnampus*, 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 Przus of Spix,—is furnished with a sinall 
tail concealed under the feathers of the rumpy. 
In the other,—the Tinamoos of Spix, there is no vestige of a tail f. 
Their nostrils are placed a little farther back. 
We should distinguish the Ryncnotus, Spix, whose bill, which is 
stronger, has no groove, and is slightly arcuated and depressed; the nos- 
trils are pierced near the base ||. 
Cotumsa, Lin. 
The Pigeons may be considered as forming a slight transition from the 
Gallinacez to the Passerinez. 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 
spoken of among the Partridges. 
+ Tetr. major, Gm., or Tin. brasiliensis, Lath., or the Tin. magoua, Tem.; Buff. 
Eni. 476, and much better, Hist. des Ois. IV, 4to, pl. xxiv; it is the Pezus serratus, 
Spix;—Tetr. cinereus ;—Tetr. variegatus, Enl. 328, from which the Tin. undulatus, 
T., or Cryptura sylvicola, Vieill. Gal. 216, can differ but little; Tin. apequia (T. obso- 
leius, Tem.), Col. 196;—Tin. tataupa, Swains. Il]. 19, or 7. plumbeus, T. Col. 196, or 
Pexus niamba, Spix, 78, a;—Tinamus noctivagus, Pr. Max., or Pezus xabele, Sp. 77;— 
Tin. macaco, or vermiculé (T. adspersus, T.), Col. 369, or Pezus vapura, Sp. 78;—Tetr. 
sovi, Gm., or Tin. sovi, Lath. Buff., Enl. 829. 
t Tin. inambui, Azz. (TL. maculosus, 1.), or T. major, Sp. 80;—T. medius, Spix, 81; 
—T’. boraquira, Sp. 79;—T. carape (T. pavoninus, T.), of which the Tinam. minor, Sp. 
81, appears to be the female. These three species are very similar. 
|| The Tinamou isabelle (T. rufescens, 'T.), Col. 412; or Rhinchotus fasciatus, Spix, 
76. 
