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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: THE-TOO |
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TINAMOU , the name given in Guiana to a certain bird, as stated in 1741 by P. Barrere (France equinoxiale, p. 138), from whom it was taken and used in a more general sense by Buffon (Aist. not. oiseaux, iv. 502). In 1783 j. Latham (Synapsis, ii. 724) adopted it as English, and in 1790 (Index, ii. 633) Latinized it Tinamus, as the name of a new and distinct genus. The " Tinamou " of Barrere has been identified with the " Macucagua " described and figured by Marcgrav in 1648, and is the Tinamus major of modern authors.' Buffon and his successors saw that the Tinamous, though passing among the European colonists of South America as " Partridges, ' could not be associated with those birds, and Latham's step, above mentioned, was generally approved. The genus he had founded was usually placed among the Gallinae, and by many writers was held to be allied to the bustards, which, it must be remembered, were then thought to be struthious." Indeed the likeness of the Tinamou's bill to that of the Rhea (q.v.) was remarked in 1811 by Illiger. On the other hand L'Herminier in 1827 saw features in the Tinamou's sternum that in his judgment linked the bird to the Rallidae. In 1830 J. Wagler (Nat. Syst. Amphibien, &c., p. 127) placed the Tinamous in the same order as the ostrich and its allies; and, though he did this on very insufficient grounds, his assignment has turned out to be not far from the mark, as in 1862 the great
paper in the Zoological Proceedings (1867, pp. 425, 426) was enabled to place the whole matter in a clear light, urging that the Tinamous formed a very distinct group of birds which, though not to be removed from the Carinatae, presented so much resemblance to the Ratitae as to indicate them to be the bond of union between those two great
The Tinamous are comparatively insignificant in numbers. They are peculiar to the neotropical regiona few species finding their way into southern Mexico
minor characters there is considerable difference among them; and about sixty-four species are recognized, divided into the genera Tinamus, Notliocercus, Crypturus, Rhynchotus, Nothoprocta, Nothura, Taoniscus and Tinamotis.To the ordinary spectator Tinamous have much the look of partridges, but the more attentive observer will notice that their,svi Rufous Tinamou (Rhynchotus rufescens), Elongated bill, their small head and slender neck, clothed with very short feathers, give them a different air. The plumage is generally inconspicuous: some tint of brown, ranging from rufous to slaty, and often more or less closely barred with a darker shade or black, is the usual style of coloration; but some species are characterized by a white throat or a bay breast. The wings are short and rounded, and in some forms the feathers i Brisson and after him Linnaeus confounded this bird, which they had never seen, with the Trumpeter (q.v.). TINDAL of the tail, which in all are hidden by their coverts, are soft, In bearing and gait the birds show some resemblance to their distant relatives the Ratitae, and A. D. Bartlett showed (Prot. Zool. Soc., 1868, p. 115, pl. xii.) that this is especially seen in the newly hatched young
porcelain
pale primrose to sage-green or light indigo, or from chocolate
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