ANATOMY OF BIRDS
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS
CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS
LIZARD-TAILED BIRD
AMERICAN TOOTHED-BIRDS
THE OSTRICHES
THE RHEAS
EMEUS AND CASSOWARIES
THE TINAMOUS
THE KIWIS
THE PENGUINS
LOONS AND GREBES
ALBATROSSES & PETRELS
STORK-LIKE BIRDS
GOOSE-LIKE BIRDS
FALCON-LIKE BIRDS
FOWL-LIKE BIRDS
CRANE-LIKE BIRDS
PLOVER-LIKE BIRDS
CUCKOO-LIKE BIRDS
THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS
SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS
Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE TINAMOUS
Tinamous Distribution
Some of the Tinamous inhabit open, grassy country, and depend much for safety in concealment among the grasses which they closely resemble in color, while others are quite as distinctly forest birds. They subsist largely upon seeds and berries, and they have a very distinct and flute-like song.
They are, however, looked upon as rather stupid birds, some of the species being very tame, often coming around the houses, when they are killed with a stick, whip, or stone. They are often caught by a horseman riding around them in a decreasing spiral, or even picked up with a noose on a pole.
The fact that they are esteemed as food combined with their stupidity and confiding disposition have brought about their extermination in certain localities. They are rather solitary in their habits, although several may usually be found within a short distance of one another, and occasionally they are found in coveys of a dozen or more. The nest is simply a hollow scratched by the birds at the base of a tussock of grass, a thistle, or low bush, and slightly lined with grasses, feathers, and dry leaves.
The eggs are among the most remarkable produced by any living bird. They vary in number in the different species from five to eight to twelve or sixteen, or possibly when of the latter number, one or more females may lay in the same nest. They are elliptical in shape, and have the shell polished until it appears like a piece of highly burnished metal or glazed porcelain.
The color, which seems to be constant for particular species, is very variable,ranging from”pale primrose to sage-green or light indigo, or from chocolate-brown to pinkish-orange.”
The minute structure of the egg-shell has been studied by a German investigator with the result that they are shown to resemble the eggs of the Kiwi of New Zealand most closely. The male parent is said to perform the duty of incubation, and the young are very soon able to care for themselves.
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