72 Zoological N. Y. Zoological Society. [I; 3 



their high pitched, rolling trill would occasionally be heard. To 

 catch sight of them was a difficult matter, and only twice did 

 they give us an opportunity to use our glasses and gun. The 

 dark cross bars or markings show distinctly on the dorsal plum- 

 age, which, in shadow, appears strongly bluish. 



On April 12th, after hearing a bird call near at hand, we 

 forced our way toward it into an open glade, a former clearing 

 of some Indian, or made by the cutting of trees for the Pitch 

 Lake Company. 



A tinamou was seen to creep stealthily along close to the 

 ground, keeping near a rotten log. As it crouched and sprang 

 into the air in flight, we secured it, and found it was of this 

 species. It proved to be a male bird, with the breast feathers 

 much worn from incubating. Near where we first caught sight 

 of the bird we found a nest with two eggs still warm from the 

 heat of the parent's body. (Fig. 22.) It consisted merely of a 

 slight hollow scratched in the ground near the end of the log, in 

 a rather open patch of grass. One egg was clear, the other was 

 about to hatch. They are of a medium shade of shining tur- 

 quoise blue, the egg containing the embryo being about a shade 

 darker than the other. The inner surface of the shell is pale, 

 pearl-gray. In shape they are spheroidal, with almost equally 

 rounded ends. The measurements are: the clear egg 56 x 48 

 mm., the fertile egg 58 x 48 mm. I can find but two references 

 to the egg of Tinamus tao. 



Thein. Fortpflanz. ges. Vog., p. 22. T. V. f. I. 1845. 



H. von Ihering. Revista do Museu Paulista, IV, p. 297. 

 1900. (This is a reference to Nehrkorn ; Katalog der Eiersamm- 

 lung, Braunschweig, p. 247. 1899.) 



Near the end of our stay we learned that a second nest con- 

 taining a set of four eggs of this species had been found on April 

 3rd and the eggs placed under a hen. We could learn nothing 

 of their subsequent fate. 



(At least one other species of tinamou was heard calling, 

 but could not be identified.) 



Order GALLIFORMES. 



Penelope argyrotis (Bonap.). Rufous-tailed GuAN. 



A pair of these birds was seen near the Caiio Colorado about 

 sunset on March 30th. They were perched high up in a dead 

 tree, looking like large blackish turkeys, the sunlight shining 

 with a rich scarlet glow through their throat wattles. One was 

 secured. 



