SHEATH-BILLS. 



505 



COMMON SHEATH-BILL. 



comprise the sheath-bills (Chionis), represented by one species (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 Charadriidoi, and 

 resemble the coursers and gulls in 

 the absence of basipterygoid pro- 

 cesses 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 appearance rather of a fowl. They have 

 light pink-coloured legs, with partial webbing at the toes, small 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 difficult 

 of access. The nest is made of 

 grass and bent ; and the eggs are 

 usually two in number, of the 

 shape of those of the plovers, and 

 of a somewhat similar colouring, 

 spotted dark red and brown." 

 When first hatched the young are 

 black. The adult birds utter a 

 harsh note, and feed chiefly on 

 seaweed and molluscs ; their fearlessness being such that they will often allow 

 themselves to be knocked on the head with a stick. The seed-snipe, or quail-snipe, 

 are small, short-billed birds with the general appearance and habits of quail, living 

 in dry inland districts, where they subsist on plants, roots, and insects. The 



latreille's seed-snipe. 



