Notices of new eooks. 115 



officers were followed a little oftener. For there can be no 

 doubt that such men have it in their power, without any detri- 

 ment to the public service, to add much to our knowledge of 

 Natural History. It must frequently happen that they could, 

 if so minded, explore little known parts of a coast, or by means 

 of some of the smaller rivers, penetrate into portions of the 

 interior where the fauna and flora perhaps are undescribed. 



The period covered by Admiral Kennedy's journal extended 

 over three and a-half years, during which time he and his com- 

 panions contrived to become acquainted with most of the large 

 and small game of South America, including deer of three 

 species, guanacos, wild cattle, wild goats, wild sheep, hares, 

 Patagonian cavies, ostriches or rheas, three species of tinamu 

 (the so-called South American partridge), and a great variety of 

 snipe and wildfowl. 



Although it is evident that these chapters have greater 

 interest for sportsmen rather than for naturalists, we would by 

 no means have it inferred that there is a want of accuracy in the 

 autho'rs remarks on the latter subject, as is too often the case in 

 books of a similar character. On the contrary, Admiral 

 Kennedy seems to have made himself fairly well acquainted with 

 the fauna of the districts he explored, and he is careful, for 

 example, to explain that there are no true partridges in South 

 America, although several species of tinamu are so designated. 

 By the way, he might have spelt this name correctly, and be 

 deemed to have known that there is no word of Spanish origin 

 which terminates in ou ; the u in South America has the 

 sound of oo in English. The Latinised form adopted for the 

 generic name by ornithologists is Tinamus. The name Tinamu, 

 according to Professor Newton, first appears in print in Barrere, 

 ' Histoire Naturelle de la France Equinoxiale ' (p. 138), pub- 

 lished in Paris in 1741, whence, in 1778, it was adopted by 

 Buffon (Hist. Nat. des Oiseaux, tome iv., p. 502), and in 1790 

 was Latinised by Latham in his ' Index Ornithologicus ' (p. 633). 

 A South American correspondent of the ' The Field,' writing 

 with authority derived from personal acquaintance with the 

 native haunts of this bird, states that the name is a corruption 

 of the Guarani word Inambu. 



The information supplied by Admiral Kennedy as to the 

 game to be found in different districts, and the hints given 



