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The Seed Snipe.



looking as if they would scarcely sustain the weight of the body,

after the bustard manner: only the Seed Snipe has a diminutive

hind toe.


In the male, a blackish line runs down the centre of the

breast, and forks out on either side. The female has a yellowish-

brown breast, and in both sexes the underparts are white. There

are the narrow, long, sharply-pointed wings of a snipe, with the

plump body of a partridge, and the head of a lark.


In “Argentine Ornithology,” Vol. II., p. 176 (Sclater and

Hudson), one finds that when alighting, the Seed Snipe drops its

body directly upon the ground, and sits close like a goat-sucker ;

when rising, it rushes suddenly away with the wild hurried flight

and sharp, scraping alarm-cry of a snipe.


These birds migrate northwards to the Pampas in the winter.

They flock together in forties and fifties, keeping very close when

flying, hut are much scattered when on the ground, and reluctant to

rise. If a person stands close to, or in the midst of a flock, they

soon betray their presence by answering each other with a variety

of notes, which seem to come from beneath the ground.


Mr. H. Durnford has recorded in the Ibis (1876, p. 164) that

he found the Seed Snipe common in the neighbourhood of Buenos

Ayres from May to September, and always in flocks, and that it

seems equally fond of wet swamps and the dry campos. When

disturbed, they fly round, uttering a low whistle, and invariably

alighting head to wind. When in Central Patagonia, Mr. Durnford

took eggs of this species at the end of October ; and the young were

running in the middle of November ; but they probably have two or

more broods in the season, for he found chicks in March.


The nest is a slight depression in the ground, sometimes lined

with a few blades of grass ; and before leaving it, the old bird covers

up the eggs with little pieces of stick. The eggs are pale stone

ground-colour, very thickly but finely speckled with light and dark

chocolate markings ; they have a polished appearance, and measure

1'3 x ‘8 inch. The chick is finely mottled all over with light and

dark brown, having the beak pale horn-colour ; legs, flesh-colour ;

iris, wood-brown.


This curious bird is most nearly allied in essential structure



