SHEATH-BILLS . 
comprise the sheath-bills ( Chionis ), represented by one species (C. alba) in the 
Falkland Islands and Straits of Magellan, and a second (C. minor) in the Crozet 
and Kerguelen Islands; and the seed-snipe (Thinocorus and Attagis) of temperate 
South America. All these birds 
differ from the Charadriidce, and 
resemble the coursers and gulls in 
the absence of basipterygoid pro¬ 
cesses on the rostrum of the skull, 
as also of a pair of vacuities on the 
occipital face of the latter; the 
sheath - bills having more or less 
slit-like (schizorhinal) nasal aper¬ 
tures in the skull, while those of 
the seed-snipe approximate to the 
oval (holorhinal) type. The sheath- 
bills in Kerguelen Island, writes 
Moseley, “ are present everywhere 
on the coast, and from their ex¬ 
treme tameness and inquisitive 
habits, are always attracting one’s common sheath-bill. 
attention. A pair or two of them 
always forms part of any view on the coast. The birds are pure white, about the 
size of a very large pigeon, but with the appearance rather of a fowl. They have 
light pink-coloured legs, with partial webbing at the toes, small spurs on the inner 
sides of the wings, and a black 
bill with a most curious lamina 
of horny matter projecting over 
the nostrils. Round the eye is a 
tumid, pink ring bare of feathers; 
about the head are wattle - like 
warts. The birds nest under 
fallen rocks along the cliffs, often 
in places where the nest is difficult 
of access. The nest is made of 
grass and bent; and the eggs are 
usually two in number, of the 
shape of those of the plovers, and 
of a somewhat similar colouring, 
spotted dark red and brown.” 
When first hatched the young are 
black. The adult birds utter a 
harsh note, and feed chiefly on 
seaweed and molluscs; their fearlessness being such that they will often allow 
themselves to be knocked on the head with a stick. The seed-snipe, or quail-snipe, 
are small, short-billed birds with the general appearance and habits of quail, living 
in dry inland districts, where they subsist on plants, roots, and insects. The 
latreille’s seed-snipe. 
