106 



CHARLES DARWIN 



over, 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 grey, 

 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 

 squally 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 affin- 

 ity with quails. But as soon as the bird is seen flying, its 

 whole appearance changes; the long pointed wings, so dif- 

 ferent 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, Chi- 

 onis alba, is an inhabitant of the antarctic regions ; it feeds 

 on sea-weed and shells on the tidal rocks. Although not 



