Seed-Snipe 379 



black, the latter bordered with white as is the crown, while the lower parts are 

 white with a broad pectoral band of black. This bird, also known as the Black- 

 headed Plover, inhabits West and Northeast Africa and is especially common 

 on the banks of the Nile, where it may be seen feeding or running rapidly along 

 the sandy bars or flying swiftly over the water, uttering its peculiar chattering 

 note which resembles the words zic zac, which is the native name by which it 

 is known. It seems well authenticated that the eggs are buried in the moist 

 sand where they are incubated by the intense heat of the sun. Should the 

 sand over the eggs become dry, the birds have been observed to moisten it by 

 first dipping the breast in the water and applying it to the sand. There are 

 some differences of opinion as to whether this or Hoplopterus spinosus is the 

 true Crocodile Bird, but the facts as at present understood seem to favor the 

 latter. 



THE SEED-SNIPES 



(Family Thinocoridcs) 



The Seed-Snipes, or Lark-Plovers, of which two genera and some half a dozen 

 species are known, are all peculiar South American birds of decided Quail-like 

 or Partridge-like appearance. They have plump bodies, short legs, long, sharp- 

 pointed wings, and a somewhat fowl-like bill and plumage, on which account 

 they were placed by the earlier writers among the GallincB, but since their ana- 

 tomical characteristics were pointed out by Professor Garrod some thirty years 

 ago, it became clear that their affinities, although evidently extending in several 

 directions, are rather with the Plovers. They frequent the bare and desolate 

 districts from Peru and Chile to the southern extremity of the continent, occurring 

 only on the high Andes in the northern portion of their range, but descending 

 to sea-level in Patagonia and the Falkland Islands. Their food consists entirely 

 of seeds, tender buds, and leaves, and their nest is a mere slight depression in 

 the ground lined with a few grass blades. The eggs are pale gray, thickly spotted 

 with two shades of chocolate. 



The two genera are very close together, the difference being mainly in the 

 total length of the birds and the shape of the tail, the first (Attagis), with three 

 species, being the larger (approximating eleven inches), each having the tail 

 rounded, while in the other (Thinocorus] the size is between six and eight 

 and a half inches and the tail more wedge-shaped. In Attagis gayi of Chile 

 and Peru the plumage is ashy gray above, blotched and vermiculated with 

 black, and pale cinnamon, marked with narrow wavy lines of blackish below. 

 Similar but much darker is A . chimborazensis of the high mountains of Ecuador, 

 while A. malouinus of the Straits of Magellan and the Falkland Islands is dis- 

 tinguished by its white breast and abdomen. Comparatively little is known 

 of their habits. 



Of the members of the other genus the information is fortunately more 

 extensive, the Common Seed-Snipe (T. rumicivorus), which ranges from Pata- 



