Zoological Illustrations Volume I Part 8

Pillar four-plaited.

Dead sh.e.l.ls of this new Mitre were received from Van Dieman's Land by Mr.

Humphrey: it is perfectly dest.i.tute of striae, excepting a few faint ones at the base: the mouth, which is smooth inside, appeared in the few specimens he had, to be unformed; it is, however, sufficiently distinct from any other.

Pl. 19

[Ill.u.s.tration]

TINAMUS Tataupa, _var._

_Tataupa Tinamou._

GENERIC CHARACTER.

_Rostrum mediocre, depressum, latius quam altum, apice rotundato obtuso; culmine lato, excelso. Nares laterales, mediae, ovatae, patulae, apertae. Pedes tetradactyli, fissi; halluce brevissimo, insistente.

Cauda nulla, aut brevissima, plumis uropygii obtecta. Alae breves._ Temminck, vol. iii. p. 747.

Typus Genericus _T. rufescens_. Latham.

Bill moderate, depressed, broader than high, tip obtuse, back broad.

Nostrils lateral, medial, ovate, expanded and open. Feet four-toed, cleft; hind toe very short. Tail none or very short, concealed by the rump-feathers. Wings short.

Generic Type _T. rufescens_. Latham.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

_T. corpore supra fusco-rufo, immaculato; capite et collo fusco-nigro; mento albo; gula, collo, pectoreque cinereis; corpore infra albescente; uropygio lateribusque posticis rufis aut nigris, pennis albo-marginatis._

Tinamou with the body above dusky-rufous, immaculate. Head and neck dusky-black; chin white; throat, neck and breast, cinereous; body beneath whitish; vent and flanks rufous or black, the feathers margined with white.

Tinamus Tataupa. _Temminck Pig. et Gall._ iii. _p._ 590 _et_ 752. _Gen.

Zool. vol._ xi. _part_ 2. _p._ 416.

The Tinamous are entirely confined to the new world, where they seem to hold the same scale in creation which the Partridges do in the old continent. Our knowledge of these singular birds has been much increased by the writings of Professor Temminck, who has described twelve species. The present bird is nearly the smallest of its family: I found it only once in the interior of Bahia in Brazil, where it must be very rare, or frequent to particular districts only. Though differing in some respects from the description of Temminck, I am inclined to consider it merely as a variety.

Total length (excepting the legs) eight inches and a quarter. The bill is one inch one line long from the gape, and, with the irides, is red. The head and neck above blackish cinereous; the crown much darker and tinged with brown, the rest of the upper plumage uniform reddish-brown; the edges of the wing-covers tinged with pale cinereous; the spurious wings and quills greyish-brown; the chin is white, changing on the throat, neck, breast and their sides to a pale lead-colour, which, on the body, again becomes white; the feathers on the flanks are blackish or rufous, beautifully margined all round by white, with another internal mark of the same kind; those on the vent are similarly marked, but on a pale rufous ground; the thighs are rufous-white; the under tail-covers rufous, marked by narrow undulated concentric lines of black, the ends whitish. The length of the legs (from the knee to the base of the middle toe) one inch two lines, and from that to the tip of the claw one inch. Legs blueish-purple.

Hind toe very short, and elevated above the ground.

Pl. 20

[Ill.u.s.tration]

PICUS Braziliensis.

_Brazilian Woodp.e.c.k.e.r._

GENERIC CHARACTER.--See Pl. 14.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

_P. olivaceus, subtus fulvus, nigrescente-fasciatus; capite subcristato, supra rubro, utrinque lineis olivaceis, fulvis, et rubris._

Olive Woodp.e.c.k.e.r: beneath fulvous, with transverse blackish bands. Head sub-crested, above red, the sides with olive, yellow, and red streaks.

P. Braziliensis, Swains. in Wern. Trans. 3. p. 291.

A new species of this already extensive family, inhabiting the interior of Brazil in the province of Bahia, where I met with it but once. It was, I believe, first described in a paper I sent to the Wernerian Society some time ago: the figure is less than the natural size.

Total length nine inches. Bill not quite an inch, and blackish. Irides yellow. Head slightly crested; the whole upper part crimson. Orbits and cheeks olive-brown; beneath this a narrow line of tawny-yellow begins at the nostrils and pa.s.ses down the sides of the neck; next this is a similar stripe crimson on the jaws and olive beyond, leaving the chin and throat in front yellowish; the plumage above is tawny-olive. Quills black, within edged with rufous: all the under parts tawny-yellow, transversely banded with blackish lines; inner wing-covers yellowish. Tail three inches and a half long, the feathers black, unspotted, and tinged at their base with olive. Feet and claws lead-colour. The neck is very slender. The only one I have yet seen was a male.

Pl. 21

[Ill.u.s.tration]

PROCNIAS hirundacea.

_Swallow Fruit-eater._

GENERIC CHARACTER.

_Rostrum breve, trigonum, basi latissimum, dilatatum, versus apicem contractum: mandibulis emarginatis; marginibus intraflexis; mandibula superiore, tomiis curvatis, carinatis; inferiore recta, breviore. Nares latae, basales, subnudae; aperturis...o...b..culatis, approximantibus, apicem quam malam magis appropinquantibus. Lingua brevissima, angusta. Rictus amplissimi infra oculos aperientes. Pedes insidentes. Alae mediocres._

Typus Genericus _Ampelis carunculata_. Latham.