206 CHARADRIIFORMES: THINOCORYTHIDAE CHAP. 
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Sub-fam. 2. Dromadinae——This contains only Dromas ardeola, 
the curious Crab-Plover, with its straight, hard compressed bill, 
long legs, webbed toes, and pectinated middle claw. It is white, 
with the elongated dorsal feathers and most of the wings black, 
the tail chiefly grey. Found from the Red Sea to Natal, and 
through the Indian Ocean to the Bay of Bengal, it haunts sandy 
islands or sandbanks on the coast, flying, running, or walking with 
equal ease. This bird feeds on small crustaceans, and breeds in com- 
pany, depositing a single large white egg on the bare sand in a 
deep burrow, where the young remain for a considerable time. 
Fam. IV. Thinocorythidae.—The so-called South American 
“Seed-Snipes” are a generalized group of somewhat Fowl-like 
birds, with long wings and short legs. Zhinocorys rwmicivorus, 
of Peru, Bolivia, Chili, Argentina, and Patagonia, is yellowish- 
brown and black above, with whitish tips to the dark remiges and 
rectrices, and creamy white below with a black pectoral band, 
which sends a streak upwards to bifurcate round the white throat. 
The female has a less extensive band, and an ashy-brown fore-neck. 
T. orbignianus, of Peru, Chil, and Bolivia, differs in its grey 
breast with no central streak ; it has a black border to the throat, 
and a grey nape, which is absent in the female. Aftagis gayi, of 
the same countries, has grey and rufous upper parts with black 
spots and vermiculations, and pale cinnamon under parts, with a 
ereyish fore-neck shewing fine black lines. A. chimborazensis of 
Ecuador is blacker above and darker below ; A. malouina, of the 
Straits of Magellan and the Falkland Islands, has a white lower 
surface and a rufous chest with round black spots. These forms 
usually frequent hill-country, and to the north of their range even 
haunt the higher Andes, hving on vegetable substances, and especi- 
ally seeds of docks and other plants. They run with great celerity 
over the stony ravines or grassy plains, but they often squat or creep 
away from intruders ; when flushed they rise sharply with twisting 
flight lke the Snipe, and utter a similar cry. On the ground they 
make curious hollow or whistling noises, the flocks answering one 
another as they sit, and being very hard to distinguish, from 
their earthy coloration. The nest of Zhinocorys is a depression 
slightly hned with grass,and contains some four drab or pinkish-buff 
pear-shaped eggs, thickly speckled with chocolate and purplish- 
erey, which the female is said to cover when she leaves them, while 
the male anxiously keeps watch from some neighbouring stone. 
