98 
BAHIA BLANCA 
CHAP. 
procure this bird, but never had the good fortune to succeed. 
Dobrizhoffer 1 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 . 1749, vol. i. (English translation), p. 314. 
