88 BAHIA I3LAXCA. [CHAP. v. 



when at the Ivio Negro, made great exertions to procure this bird, 

 but never had the good fortune to succeed. Dobrizhoffer * long ago 

 was aware of there being two kinds of ostriches; he says, "You 

 must know, moreover, that Emus differ in size and habits in dif- 

 ferent tracts of land ; for those that inhabit the plains of Buenos 

 Ayres and Tucuman are larger, and have black, white, and gray 

 feathers ; those near to the Strait of Magellan are smaller and more 

 beautiful, for their white feathers are tipped with black at the 

 extremity, and their black ones in like manner terminate in white." 



A very singular little bird, Tinochorus rumicivorus, is here 

 common : in its habits and general appearance, it nearly equally 

 partakes of the characters, different as they are, of the quail and 

 snipe. The Tinochorus is found in the whole of southern South 

 America, wherever there are sterile plains, or open dry pasture 

 land. It frequents in pairs or small flocks the most desolate places, 

 where scarcely another living creature can exist. Upon being 

 approached they squat close, and then are very difficult to be dis- 

 tinguished from the ground. When feeding they walk rather 

 slowly, with their legs wide apart. They dust themselves in roads 

 and sandy places, and frequent particular spots, where they may 

 be found day after day : like partridges, they take wing in a flock. 

 In all these respects, in the muscular gizzard adapted for vegetable 

 food, in the arched beak and fleshy nostrils, short legs and form of 

 foot, the Tinochorus has a close affinity with quails. But as soon 

 as the bird is seen flying, its whole appearance changes ; the long 

 pointed wings, so different from those in the gallinaceous 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 the 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, 



lion, and is now publishing the results on a scale of magnificence, which 

 at once places himself in the list of American travellers second only to 

 Humboldt. 

 * Account of the Abiponee, A.D. 17-19, vol. i. (English translation) 



