SHEA TH BILLS AND SEED SNIPE 



2275 



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COMMON SHEATH BII.I,. 



SHEATH BILLS AND SEED SNIPE 

 Families CHIONIDID^ and THINOCORID^ 



In this place brief mention 

 may be made of certain birds 

 which appear to connect to some 

 extent the members of the pre- 

 ceding families with the gulls. 

 These comprise the sheath bills 

 (Chionis), represented by one spe- 

 cies (C. alba] in the Falkland 

 islands and straits of Magellan, 

 and a second (C. minor} in the 

 Crozet and Kerguelen islands, and 

 the seed snipe ( Thinocorus and 

 Attagis) of Temperate South 

 America. All these birds differ 

 from the Charadriida , and re- 

 semble the coursers and gulls in 

 the absence of basipterygoid proc- 

 esses on the rostrum of the skull, as also of a pair of vacuities on the occipital face 

 of the latter, the sheath bills having more or less slit-like (schizorhinal) nasal aper- 

 tures in the skull, while those of 

 the seed snipe approximate to the 

 oval (holorhinal) type. The sheath 

 bills in Kerguelen island, writes 

 Moseley, " are present everywhere 

 on the coast, and from their ex- 

 treme tameness and inquisitive 

 habits, are always attracting one's 

 attention. A pair or two of them 

 always forms part of any view 

 on the coast. The birds are pure 

 white, about the size of a very 

 large pigeon, but with the appear- 

 ance rather of a fowl. They have 

 light pink-colored legs, with par- 

 tial webbing at the toes, small 

 I.ATREII.LE'S SEED SNIPE. spurs on the inner sides of the 



wings, and a black bill with a 



most curious lamina of horny matter projecting over the nostrils. Round the eye 

 is a tumid, pink ring bare of feathers; about the head are wattle-like warts. The 

 birds nest under fallen rocks along the cliffs, often in places where the nest is 



