Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/423

Rh 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 Carinatæ, presented so much resemblance to the Ratitæ, as to indicate them to be the bond of union between those two great divisions. The group from the resemblance of its palatal characters to those of the EMEU (vol. viii. p. 171), Dromæus, he called Dromæognathæ, and his decision, if not his name, has since been widely accepted.

The Tinamous thus by whatever name we call them, Dromseognathas, Tinami, or Crypturi will be seen to be of great importance from a taxonomer's point of view, though in regard to numbers they are comparatively insignificant. In 1873 Messrs. Sclater and Salvin in their Nomendator (pp. 152, 153) recognized nine genera and thirty -nine species, since which time about half a dozen other species may have been described; but in 1880 Schlegel (Mus. PaysBos, viii., Monogr. 41, pp. 1-51) would only admit five genera and thirty-one species the latter because it was the number possessed by the Leyden museum. They are peculiar to the Neotropical Region four species only finding their way into southern Mexico and none beyond. Some of them inhabit forests and others the more open country; but setting aside size (which in this group varies from that of a Quail to that of a large common Fowl) there is an unmis takable uniformity of appearance among them as a whole, so that almost anybody having seen one species of the group would always recognize another. Yet in minor characters there is considerable difference among them; and first of all the group may be divided into two sub-families, the first, Tinaminas, having four toes, and the second, Tinamotidinse, having but three the latter containing, so far as is known, but two genera, Calopezus and Tinamotis, each consisting of a single species, while the former, according to Messrs. Sclater and Salvin (ut supra), may be separated into seven genera, two being Tinamus and Nothocercus, characterized by the roughness of their posterior tarsal scales, the others, Crypturus, Rkynchotus, Nothoprocta, Nothura, and Taoniscus, having smooth legs.

To the ordinary spectator Tinamous have much the look of Partridges, but the more attentive observer will notice that their elongated bill, their small head and slender neck, clothed with very short feathers, give them a different air.

Rufous tinamou (Rhynchotus rufescens). 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 of the tail, which in all are hidden by their coverts, are soft. In bearing and gait the birds show some resem blance to their distant relatives the Ratitse, and Mr Bartlett shows (Proc. Zool. Society, 1868, p. 115, pi. xii.) that this is especially seen in the newly-hatched young. He also notices the still stronger Eatite character, that the male takes on himself the duty of incubation. The eggs are very remarkable objects, curiously unlike those of other birds; and, as before stated (BiEDS, vol. iii. p. 775), their shell looks as if it were of highly-burnished metal or glazed porcelain, presenting also various colours, which seem to be constant in the particular species, from pale primrose to sage-green or light indigo, or from chocolatebrown to" pinkish orange. All who have eaten it declare the flesh of the Tinamou to have a most delicate taste, as it has a most inviting appearance, the pectoral muscles being semi-opaque. Of their habits not much has been told. Darwin (Journal, chap, iii.) has remarked upon the silliness they show in allowing themselves to be taken, and this is wholly in accordance with what Prof. Parker ob serves of their brain capacity, and is an additional testi mony to their low morphological rank. At least one species of Tinamou has bred not unfrequently in confine ment, and an interesting account of what would have been a successful attempt by Mr John Bateman to naturalize this species, Rhynchotus rufescens, in England, at Brightlingsea in Essex, appeared in The Field (23d Feb. 1884 and 12th Sept. 1885). The experiment unfortunately failed owing to the destruction of the birds by foxes.  TINDAL, (1656–1733), one of the ablest and most popular of the English deists, the son of a clergyman, was born at Beer Ferris, Devonshire, in 1656. He studied law at Lincoln College, Oxford, where he came under the influence of the High Churchman George Hickes, dean of Worcester; and in his twenty-second year he was elected fellow of All Souls College, and held his fellowship till his death. About 1685 he saw "that upon his High Church notions a separation from the Church of Rome could not be justified," and accordingly he joined the latter. But, discerning the baselessness and absurdity of Rome's claims, he returned to the Church of England at Easter 1688. In 1694 he published an Essay of Obedience to the Supreme Powers, in which he justified the Revolution against notions of passive obedience and jus divinum; in 1697 an Essay on the Power of the Magistrate and the Rights of Mankind in Matters of Religion, an able vindica tion of liberty of conscience, though he allows no right of toleration to "atheists"; and in 1698 an essay on The Liberty of the Press, a vigorous exposure of the proposal to appoint licensers of the press and a powerful plea for the free discussion of religion. The first of his two larger works, The Rights of the Christian Church associated against the Romish and all other priests who claim an independent power over it, part i., appeared anonymously in 1706 (2d ed., 1706; 3d, 1707; 4th, 1709). The book was regarded in its day as an extremely forcible defence of the Erastian theory of the supremacy of the state over the church, and at once provoked a storm of counter-argument and abuse on the part of those who maintained the independent rights and authority of the church. The law also was invoked against it, and, after several attempts to proscribe the work had failed, one against the author, publisher, and printer succeeded on 12th December 1707, and another against a bookseller for selling a copy the next day. The prosecution did not prevent the issue of a fourth edition and gave the author the opportunity of issuing A Defence of the Rights of the Christian Church, in two parts (2d ed., 1709). The book continued to be the subject of denunciation for years, and Tindal believed he was charged by Dr Gibson, bishop of London, in a Pastoral Letter, with having undermined religion and promoted atheism and infidelity,—a