To Azara’s interesting account of the Tataupa’s habits nothing has been recently added. He says that this species inhabits woods and thickets, and also approaches houses where it finds cover—hence the Guarani name, which means a bird of the house. It lays four eggs of a fine purple colour; and when driven from the nest flutters along the ground, feigning lameness. It sings all the year round, and for power and brilliance of voice is preeminent among this class of birds. After the first note of its curious song there is an interval of eight seconds of silence; then the note is repeated with shorter and shorter intervals, until, becoming hurried, they run into a trill, followed by a sound which may be written chororó, repeated three or four times. When sitting close it tips forward, pressing its breast on its legs, so that the rump is raised higher than the back, and opening the terminal feathers of the body, it spreads them in a semicircle over the back as if to conceal itself beneath them, and when looked at from behind nothing is visible except this fan of feathers. The feathers are concave with points inclining upward, and when thus disposed have a strange and beautiful appearance.
[427.] RHYNCHOTUS RUFESCENS (Temm.).
(GREAT TINAMOU.)
Rhynchotus rufescens, Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. p. 498 (Paraná, Rosario, Tucuman); Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 153; Hudson, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 546 (Buenos Ayres); Durnford, Ibis, 1877, p. 263 (Buenos Ayres); Barrows, Auk, 1884, p. 317 (Entrerios); Withington, Ibis, 1888, p. 473 (Lomas de Zamora).
Description.—Above cinereous; head, wings, and back crossed by black bars with pale ochraceous edgings; neck reddish; primaries chestnut: beneath pale cinereous, strongly tinged with rufous on the neck and breast; chin white; bill ashy, beneath at base yellowish; feet dark flesh-colour: whole length 14·0 inches, wing 9·5, tail 3·0. Female similar, but larger.
Hab. South Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.
This large Tinamou, known to the Argentines as the Perdiz grande, or “Great Partridge,” is found on the pampas wherever long grasses abound, and extends as far south as the Colorado river, its place being taken in Patagonia by Calodromas elegans. It is never met with in woods or thickets, and requires no shelter but the giant grasses, through which it pushes like a Rail. Wherever the country becomes settled and the coarse indigenous grasses are replaced by those of Europe, it quickly disappears, so that it is already extinct over a great portion of the Buenos Ayrean pampas.
This species is solitary in its habits, conceals itself very closely in the grass, and flies with the greatest reluctance. I doubt if there is anywhere a bird with such a sounding flight as the Tinamou; the whir of its wings can only be compared to the rattling of a vehicle driven at great speed over a stony road. From the moment it rises until it alights again there is no cessation in the rapid vibration of the wings; but, like a ball thrown by the hand, the bird flies straight away with extraordinary violence until the impelling force is spent, when it slopes gradually towards the earth, the distance it is able to accomplish at a flight being from 800 to 1500 yards. This flight it can repeat when driven up again as many as three times, after which the bird can rise no more.
The call of the Large Partridge is heard, in fine weather, at all seasons of the year, especially near sunset, and is uttered while the bird sits concealed in the grass, many individuals answering each other; for although I call it a solitary bird, it being a rare thing to see even two together, many birds are usually found living near each other. The song or call is composed of five or six notes of various length, with a mellow flute-like sound, and so expressive that it is, perhaps, the sweetest bird-music heard on the pampas.
The eggs are usually five in number, nearly round, highly polished, and of a dark-reddish-purple or wine colour; but this beautiful tint in a short time changes to a dull leaden hue. The nest is a mere scrape, insufficiently lined with a few grass-leaves. The young birds appear to leave the mother (or father, for it is probable that the male hatches the eggs) at a very early period. When still very small they are found living, like the adults, a solitary life, with their facilities, including those of flight and the melodious voice, in a high state of perfection.