those that inhabit the plains of Buenos Ayres and Tucuman are larger,
and have black, white and grey feathers; those near to the Strait of
Magellan are smaller and more beautiful, for their white feathers are
tipped with black at the extremity, and their black ones in like manner
terminate in white."
A very singular little bird, Tinochorus rumicivorus, is here common: in
its habits and general appearance, it nearly equally partakes of the
characters, different as they are, of the quail and snipe. The
Tinochorus is found in the whole of southern South America, wherever
there are sterile plains, or open dry pasture land. It frequents in
pairs or small flocks the most desolate places, where scarcely another
living creature can exist. Upon being approached they squat close, and
then are very difficult to be distinguished from the ground. When
feeding they walk rather slowly, with their legs wide apart. They dust
themselves in roads and sandy places, and frequent particular spots,
where they may be found day after day: like partridges, they take wing
in a flock. In all these respects, in the muscular gizzard adapted for
vegetable food, in the arched beak and fleshy nostrils, short legs and
form of foot, the Tinochorus has a close affinity with quails. But as
soon as the bird is seen flying, its whole appearance changes; the long
pointed wings, so different from those in the gallinaceous order, the
irregular manner of flight, and plaintive cry uttered at the moment of
rising, recall the idea of a snipe. The sportsmen of the Beagle
unanimously called it the short-billed snipe. To this genus, or rather
to the family of the Waders, its skeleton shows that it is really
related.
The Tinochorus is closely related to some other South American birds.
Two species of the genus Attagis are in almost every respect ptarmigans
in their habits; one lives in Tierra del Fuego, above the limits of the
forest land; and the other just beneath the snow-line on the Cordillera
of Central Chile. A bird of another closely allied genus, Chionis
alba, is an inhabitant of the antarctic regions; it feeds on sea-weed
and shells on the tidal rocks. Although not web footed, from some
unaccountable habit, it is frequently met with far out at sea. This
small family of birds is one of those which, from its varied relations
to other families, although at present offering only difficulties to
the systematic naturalist, ultimately may assist in revealing the grand
scheme, common to the present and past ages, on which organized beings
88