18 
ZOOLOGY OF THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE. 
be found there day after day. When a pair are together, if one is shot, the other 
seldom rises; for these birds, like partridges, only 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 directly the bird is seen flying, one’s opinion is changed; 
the long pointed wings, so different from those in the gallinaceous order, the high 
irregular flight, and plaintive cry uttered at the moment of rising, recall the idea 
of a snipe. Occasionally they soar like partridges when on the wing in a flock. 
The sportsmen of the Beagle unanimously called it the short-billed snipe. To 
this genus, or rather to that of the sandpiper, it approaches, as Mr. Gould informs 
me, in the shape of its wing, the length of the scapulars, the form of the tail, which 
closely resembles that of Tringa hypoleucos, and in the general colour of the 
plumage. The male bird, however, has a black mark on its breast, in the form of 
a yoke, which may be compared to the red horseshoe on the breast of the English 
partridge. Its nest is said to be placed on the borders of lakes, although the bird 
itself is an inhabitant of the parched desert. I was told that the female lays five 
or six white eggs, spotted with red. I opened the stomachs of many specimens 
at Maldonado, and found only vegetable matter, which consisted of chopped pieces 
of a thick rushy grass, and leaves of some plant, mixed with grains of quartz. 
The contents of the intestine and the dung were of a very bright green colour. 
At another season of the year, and further south, I found the craw of one full of 
small seeds and a single ant. Those which I shot were exceedingly fat, and had 
a strong offensive game odour ; but they are said to be very good eating, when 
cooked. Pointers will stand to them. In the Appendix Mr. Eyton has given an 
anatomical description of this bird, which partly confirms that affinity both to the 
Grallatores and Razores, which is so remarkable in its habits and external 
appearance. 
Chionis alba. Forst. 
Shaw’s Nat. Miscel. pi. 481. 
I opened the stomach of a specimen killed at the Falkland Islands, and found 
in it small shells, chiefly Patellae, pieces of sea-weed, and several pebbles. The 
contents of the stomach and body smelt most offensively. Forster remarked this 
circumstance ; but since his time, other observers, namely, Anderson, Quoy, 
Gaimard, and Lesson (Manuel d’Ornithologie, tom ii, p. 342) have found that this 
is not always the case, and they state that they have actually eaten the Chionis. 
I was not aware of these observations, but independently was much surprised at 
the extraordinary odour exhaled. We, like other voyagers in the Antarctic seas, 
were struck at the great distance from land, at which this bird is found in the 
