104 THE INTRODUCTION OF A NEW GAME-BIRD INTO ESSEX.
and in 1790 was Latinised by Latham in his "Index Ornithologicus"
(page 633).
A South American correspondent of "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; and Mr. W. H. Hudson, who is well acquainted with the
species as inhabiting the Argentine Pampas, informs us that the
Indian name for it there is Melum.
The Tinamus, says Mr. Wallace, are a very remarkable family of
birds,4 with the general appearances of partridges or hemipodes, but
with the tail either very small or entirely wanting. They differ
greatly in their organization from any of the Old World Gallinae, and
approach in some respects the Struthious or ostrich tribe.5 They
are very terrestrial in their habits, dwelling in the forests, open
plains, and mountains of the Neotropical region from Patagonia and
Chili to Mexico; but like the Cracidae they are absent from the Antilles.
Their colouring is very sober and protective, as is the case with
so many ground birds, the sexes being externally indistinguishable,
and they are seldom adorned with crests or other ornamental plumes,
so prevalent in the order to which they belong. The body is
thick and the head small, the bill a trifle shorter than the head,
gently curved and depressed, the tail small and often concealed by
the coverts, the wings short and rounded. About 40 species are
known to science at present, and these have been grouped in nine
genera. According to Messrs. Sclater and Salvin the sub-families
and genera are as follows :—Tinaminae, seven genera; Tinamus
(seven species), Mexico to Paraguay; Nothocercus (three species),
Costa Rica to Venezuela and Ecuador ; Crypturus (sixteen species),
Mexico to Paraguay and Bolivia ; Rhynchotus (two species), Bolivia
and South Brazil to La Plata ; Nothoprocta (four species), Ecuador
to Bolivia and Chili; Northura (four species), Brazil and Bolivia
to Patagonia; Taoniscus (one species), Brazil to Paraguay;
Tinamotinae, two genera; Calodromas (one species), La Plata and
Patagonia ; Tinamotis (one species), Andes of Peru and Bolivia.
Many of these birds are found only in forests, while others, on
the contrary, frequent open grass lands, and have the habits of the
European quail. They run with great rapidity, and seldom attempt
4 He treats them as a family of the order Gallinae: ("Geograpical Distribution of Animals,"
vol. ii., page 343) ; but those who adopt Prof. Huxley's classification, based upon the form of the
palatal bone, would place them as Mr. Sharpe does in an independent order, Crypturi.
5 In the form of the skull they approach the Ratitae or ostrich tribe, while like all Carinate
birds they possess a keel to the sternum.