286



Mr. D. Seth-Smith,



near to Country bouses, and inhabits woods and thickets. It

lays four eggs, of a beautiful purple colour, and the sitting bird,

when disturbed, flutters from the nest feigning lameness. He

kept some alive in a room where they carefully hid themselves,

only appearing to feed when no one was near. The notes are

louder and more brilliant than those of any of their congeners.

It commences its song with one high note, followed by an

interval of eight seconds; then the note is repeated at shorter

intervals, and then runs into a trill, followed by a sound like

■chororo, repeated several times. He put three adults in a cage

during October and November, which sang; and in September

the following year they laid three eggs, but did not sit. When

sitting close, he tells us, it tips the body forward, pressing its

breast on the ground, and raising the rump higher than the back,

opening the feathers and spreading them into a semi-circle over

the back, so that when looked at from behind nothing is visible

but a fan of feathers.


Mr. W. A. Forbes, writing on “ Eleven weeks in North-

Eastern Brazil ” (Ibis, 1881, p. 369), remarks : “ The ‘ Nambu,’ as

the present species of Tinamou is called, is not at all an uncommon

bird in the neighbourhood of Macuca and Garanhuus, where I

several times heard its cry, and once or twice flushed it. Its

flight, however, though strong, is short, the bird soon settling

again ; and the country is so thickly covered with brushwood

and undergrowth that it is, in consequence, 110 easy matter to

shoot these birds, at least without the aid of dogs. Sometimes

they are startled and shot by Brazilian sportsmen ; but more

usually they are snared. At Garanhuus I bought a lot of

seventeen Nambus and a pair of the next species * for 2500 reis

{about five shillings)—not a bad bargain perhaps!—from a boy

who had just caught them ; and afterwards I had many more

offered me for sale.”


My pair of Tataupas arrived on the 28th of August, 1903,

and were put into a fairly large aviary, consisting of a wooden

shed, some twelve feet square, with a grassed run of slightly

larger dimensions. The pair took kindly to their new home ;



* C. nociivagus.



