98 BAHiA BLANC A ChaP. 



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 different 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 distinguished 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, above the limits of the forest land ; and the 

 other just beneath the snow-line on the Cordillera of Central 

 Chile. A bird of another closely allied genus, Chionis alba, is 



1 Account of the Abipones, A.D. 1 749, vol. i. (English translation), p. 314. 



