270 
WANDERINGS IN 
FOURTH 
JOURNEY, 
The great 
Tinamou. 
The small 
Tinamou. 
baffles any attempt to give a description of the dis¬ 
tribution of them, which would be satisfactory to the 
reader. 
There is something remarkable in the great Tina¬ 
mou, which I suspect has hitherto escaped notice. 
It invariably roosts in trees; but the feet are so very 
small in proportion to the body of this bulky bird, 
that they can be of no use to it in grasping the 
branch; and, moreover, the hind toe is so short, 
that it does not touch the ground when the bird is 
walking. The back part of the leg, just below the 
knee, is quite flat, and somewhat concave. On it 
are strong pointed scales, which are very rough, and 
catch your finger as you move it along from the 
knee to the toe. Now, by means of these scales, 
and the particular flatness of that part of the leg, the 
bird is enabled to sleep in safety upon the branch of 
a tree. 
At the close of day, the great Tinamou gives a 
loud, monotonous, plaintive whistle, and then im¬ 
mediately springs into the tree. By the light of the 
full moon, the vigilant and cautious naturalist may 
see him sitting in the position already described. 
The small Tinamou has nothing that can be called 
a tail. It never lays more than one egg, which is 
of a chocolate colour. It makes no nest, but merelv 
scratches a little hollow in the sand, generally at the 
foot of a tree. 
Here we have an instance of a bird, the size of a 
partridge, and of the same tribe, laying only one 
egg, while the rest of the family, from the peahen 
