296 CHARADRIIFORMES : THINOCORYTHIDAE CHAP. 



Sub-fam. 2. Dromadinae. This contains only Dromas ardeola, 

 the curious Crab-Plover, with its straight, hard compressed bill, 

 long legs, webbed toes, and pectinated middle claw. It is white, 

 with the elongated dorsal feathers and most of the wings black, 

 the tail chiefly grey. Found from the Eed Sea to Natal, and 

 through the Indian Ocean to the Bay of Bengal, it haunts sandy 

 islands or sandbanks on the coast, flying, running, or walking with 

 equal ease. This bird feeds on small crustaceans, and breeds in com- 

 pany, depositing a single large white egg on the bare sand in a 

 deep burrow, where the young remain for a considerable time. 



Fam. IV. Thinocorythidae. The so-called South American 

 " Seed -Snipes" are a generalized group of somewhat Fowl-like 

 birds, with long wings and short legs. Thinocorys rumicivorus, 

 of Peru, Bolivia, Chili, Argentina, and Patagonia, is yellowish- 

 brown and black above, with whitish tips to the dark remiges and 

 rectrices, and creamy white below with a black pectoral band, 

 which sends a streak upwards to bifurcate round the white throat. 

 The female has a less extensive band, and an ashy-brown fore-neck. 

 T. orlignianus, of Peru, Chili, and Bolivia, differs in its grey 

 breast with no central streak ; it has a black border to the throat, 

 and a grey nape, which is absent in the female. Attagis gayi, of 

 the same countries, has grey and rufous upper parts with black 

 spots and vermiculations, and pale cinnamon under parts, with a 

 greyish fore-neck shewing fine black lines. A. chimborazensis of 

 Ecuador is blacker above and darker below ; A. malouina, of the 

 Straits of Magellan and the Falkland Islands, has a white lower 

 surface and a rufous chest with round black spots. These forms 

 usually frequent hill-country, and to the north of their range even 

 haunt the higher Andes, living on vegetable substances, and especi- 

 ally seeds of docks and other plants. They run with great celerity 

 over the stony ravines or grassy plains, but they often squat or creep 

 away from intruders ; when flushed they rise sharply with twisting 

 flight like the Snipe, and utter a similar cry. On the ground they 

 make curious hollow or whistling noises, the flocks answering one 

 another as they sit, and being very hard to distinguish, from 

 their earthy coloration. The nest of Thinocorys is a depression 

 slightly lined with grass, and contains some four drab or pinkish-buff 

 pear-shaped eggs, thickly speckled with chocolate and purplish- 

 grey, which the female is said to cover when she leaves them, while 

 the male anxiously keeps watch from some neighbouring stone. 



