304 Mr. Ambrose A. Lane — Field-Notes 



the " Pipileii " from its cry, only on the beach in Arauco in 

 August. A male measured 17"25 inches ; bill (to rictus) 3"5 ; 

 tail 4" 5, containing two middle rectrices and five lateral on 

 each side ; wing 9*5 ; tarsus 2, middle toe Vo (with claw), hind 

 toe absent. Feet partially webbed. 



Bill poppy-red at the base, merging into carmine, which 

 assumes a bright transparent yellowish hue at the tip. Iris 

 deep orange ; cere poppy-red. Legs and feet flesh-colour, 

 claws black. 



104. Thinocorus rumicivorus, Esch. 



Thinocot'us rumicivorus, Sharpe, B. M. C. xxiv. p. 719; 

 Scl. P.Z. S. 1891, p. 137. 



This is one of the few species to be met with on the deserts 

 of Tarapaca and in the similar parts of Northern Chili. It 

 is indeed the only bird I observed in those sterile regions far 

 from water and cultivation, though certain Musisaxicoline 

 species appear now and then about the corrals and heaps 

 of debris near habitations. In Tarapaca I found it occa- 

 sionally from the sea-shore to within a short distance of 

 Pica, and it perhaps ranges higher. It is, I was told, 

 far more plentiful further south, especially about Huasco 

 and Coquimbo ; at the former place I was told it could be 

 shot wholesale near the water-springs at certain hours. I 

 could not make out much about these birds whilst in Tarapaca, 

 as I found them very scarce, and nobody seemed to know much 

 of them ; but I had more experience of them later, which 

 leads me to believe that they all probably visit water, and 

 most likely grassy glades, somewhere in the neighbourhood 

 that they inhabit, at certain intervals, even though they pass 

 most of their time on the desert or bare sand. 



They are called in the north ''Perdicita" (= Little 

 Partridge) or " Echadero " (from the reflective Spanish verb 

 echarse, to stretch one^s self at full length), from their habit of 

 lying flat on the sand in some slight hollow on the approach 

 of an intruder. Once or twice on the few occasions that I met 

 with them in Tarapaca we dismounted and walked to where 

 they were running when we last saw them (though I never 



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