OH the Birds of Chili. 305 



could mark them down with accuracy on the glaring sand 

 which they so closely resemble), but after walking carefully and 

 making close scrutiny we could find no further trace of them. 

 I found small flocks of them subsequently on the wide beach 

 extending from Laraqueti to Arauco; this was in August, 

 and I w-as told that they occurred there only at that season. 

 The natives had no regular name for them, calling them 

 " Polios (chickens) del mar,'" which name they also apply to 

 the Plovers and other small Limicoline species. I did not 

 hear of their occurrence further south. 



The sexes are not quite similar in size, the female being a 

 little smaller : she has also a more finely shaped head and 

 gullet, and does not obtain the peculiar black marks on the 

 throat and jugulum which distinguish the adult male, 

 unless very slightly. The latter measures 5 inches long; bill 

 (point to rictus) '5 ; tail 2'5, containing two middle rectrices 

 and five lateral on each side ; wing 4'5 ; tarsus '675, middle 

 and hind toes '675 and 'ISS respectively. Bill saffron-yellow 

 at the base, tipped with black. Legs and feet saffron-yellow, 

 claws black. 



On taking wing these birds utter a wheezing screech, much 

 like that of a Snipe. When feeding they utter bubbling 

 or cooing sounds, such as might be heard from Pigeons. 

 Their flight is decidedly Snipe-like, from the similar struc- 

 ture of the wings. 



I picked up, or rather captured, one of these birds which I 

 had wounded out of a flock near Laraqueti in August 1890 ; 

 the extremity of the radius in one wing was fractured, but 

 as it did not appear much the worse I soon cured it by a 

 small operation and kept it in a box, partly open and wired 

 on one side, in order to study its habits. As it was moulting 

 at the time it fell into such a low condition that it nearly died, 

 but on being liberated now and then for ten minutes or so in a 

 field it recovered. I brought it at first on to the beach, to try 

 and find out its food on the bare sand ; but though I saw it 

 peck I never could tell exactly what it pecked at. In a 

 garden or field it ate grass and various weeds with voracity, 

 but I had to watch it carefully as it ran very fast, and always 



