252 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS: ZOOLOGY. 



changes; the long pointed wings, so different from those in the gallina- 

 ceous 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 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." (Darwin, Voyage of the "Beagle," p. 94. 

 Edition 1888, D. Appleton & Co., New York.) 



"In the course of the day two curious little birds new to us were shot 

 — the Thitiocorits rumicivorus and Attagis Falklmtdica — the true posi- 

 tion of which, in a strictly natural classification of birds, appears to be 

 somewhat doubtful. Of the former bird Mr. Darwin has remarked, that 

 ' it nearly equally partakes of the characters, different as they are, of the 

 quail and of the snipe'; and that it 'is found in the whole of southern 

 South America, wherever there are sterile plains, or upon open, dry pas- 

 ture land,' adding, that he saw it as far south as the inland plains of 

 Patagonia, at Santa Cruz, in latitude 50°. In the Strait of Magellan it 

 appears to be not uncommon, as we frequently saw small flocks on subse- 

 quent occasions. Its habits, in so far as I had an opportunity of observ- 

 ing them, greatly resembled those of a small plover; and I have several 

 times mistaken it for one of these birds. The latter bird, Attagis, which 

 considerably exceeds the former in size, was seen by Mr. Darwin, ' on the 

 mountains in the extreme southern parts of Tierra del Fuego,' where 'it 

 frequents, either in pairs or coveys, the zone of alpine plants above the 

 region of the forest,' but was never observed by us except on the open 

 low-lying country of the eastern portion of the Strait. The plumage is 

 prettily mottled, somewhat like that of a quail. An allied species of the 

 genus [A. Gayi) occurs on the mountains of Chili." (Cunn. Nat. Hist. 

 Str. Magell., 1871, p. 183.) This was at Peckett Harbor, Straits of Ma- 

 gellan. 



"Iris dark brown; bill yellowish; tarsi and toes yellow. I shot this 

 curious little bird close to the town of Punta Arenas. I put it up from a 

 rubbish-heap of tin cans, kettles, etc., close to the sea. A few days after- 



