ORDER GALLINiE. ^2C9 



discovered this rare and singular gallina. In manners and 

 some points of conformation it does not differ much from the 

 genus ganga ; but it has many characters peculiar to itself. 

 It has but three toes, directed forwards ; they are united 

 as far as the claws. The bill is grooved through its entire 

 length. The two external remiges are very long, and subu- 

 lated towards the point. The feet are covered to the claws 

 •with woolly feathers, and the sole is rough. 



The name Tinamous is given to the birds of this genus 

 by the natives of French Guiana. The colonists and the 

 South American Spaniards call them partridges, but their 

 characteristic attributes are very different. They are plen- 

 tiful in tlie forests of Guiana, and are an excellent and very 

 common game ; their flesh is white, firm, and succulent. Its 

 taste approaches that of the partridge. These birds feed on 

 cherries, wild beans, the fruits of the palm, called comon, 

 and even the coffee-berries, when they enter plantations which 

 border upon woods. They collect there fruits of different 

 kinds on the ground, which they scrape after the manner of 

 hens. They are also insectivorous. Almost continually on 

 the ground, they seldom perch except to pass the night, and 

 always on the lowest branches of trees and shrubs. 



These birds, which are found in Brazil as well as Guiana, 

 and probably in other parts of South America, have all the 

 habits of the gallinae. They fly heavily, and run swiftly ; 

 they are usually to be met with in small troops, and in the 

 season of reproduction, in couples ; they have two broods 

 every year, and both very numerous. The females lay in a 

 hollow, which they form by scraping the ground on a bed of 

 dry grass. Their rallying cry, which is heard most fre- 

 quently in the morning and evening, is a long, trembling, 

 and plaintive hissing, which is imitated by the hunters to 

 attract them within reach of gun-shot. 



They resemble the partridges in the great number of their 



