(AMERICAN OYSTER-CATCHER.)

+Haematopus palliatus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 143; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1878, p. 403 (Centr. Patagonia); _Seebohm, Plovers_, p.

305; _Baird, Brew., et Ridgw. Water-B. N. A._ i. p. 112.

_Description._--Head and neck all round black; back and wing-coverts brown; upper tail-coverts, greater wing-coverts, and abdomen white; bill and feet orange: whole length 170 inches, wing 95, tail 35.

_Female_ similar.

_Hab._ America.

This Oyster-catcher is widely distributed along the coasts of North and South America, from Nova Scotia to Patagonia. Durnford found it nesting near Tombo Point in Central Patagonia in the month of December, but failed to obtain the eggs.

At the same place Durnford also observed the Black Oyster-catcher (_H.

ater_), but that is an Antarctic species, which may probably not come further north.

Fam. XLVIII. THINOCORIDae, or SEED-SNIPES.

The family Thinocoridae, which embraces the two genera _Thinocorus_ and _Attagis_, is a peculiar group of South-American birds of somewhat Partridge-like appearance, and a.s.sociated by the older authors with the Gallinae, but now known to be most nearly allied in essential structure to the Plovers. The Seed-Snipes are inhabitants of bare and desolate districts, being found in the northern parts of the continent only on the high Andes, but descending to the sea-level in Patagonia and the Falkland Islands. The species are few in number, only about six being known, of which two occur within Argentine limits.

393. THINOCORUS RUMICIVORUS, Eschsch.

(COMMON SEED-SNIPE.)

+Thinocorus rumicivorus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 501 (Rosario); _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 144; _iid. P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 143 (Buenos Ayres); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 42 (Chupat) et p. 197 (Buenos Ayres), et 1878, p. 403 (Centr. Patagonia); _Tacz. Orn.

Per._ iii. p. 283.

_Description._--Above buffy brown, marbled and irregularly banded with black; wing-feathers black, edged with white, external secondaries like the back; tail black, broadly tipped with white, central rectrices like the back: beneath white; a broad line on each side of the throat uniting in the centre of the neck and expanding into a collar on the breast black; sides of neck greyish; bill dark brown; feet yellow; claws black: whole length 65 inches, wing 39, tail 19. _Female_: above like the male: beneath white, sides of neck and breast brown varied with blackish, with slight traces only of the black bar.

_Hab._ Western Peru, Bolivia, Chili, Patagonia, and Argentina.

This curious bird has the grey upper plumage and narrow, long, sharply-pointed wings of a Snipe, with the plump body and short strong curved beak of a Partridge. But the gallinaceous beak is not in this species correlated, as in the Partridges, with stout rasorial feet; on the contrary, the legs and feet are extremely small and feeble, and scarcely able to sustain the weight of the body. When alighting the Seed-Snipe drops its body directly upon the ground and sits close like a Goatsucker; when rising it rushes suddenly away with the wild hurried flight and sharp sc.r.a.ping alarm-cry of a Snipe. It is exclusively a vegetable-feeder. I have opened the gizzards of many scores to satisfy myself that they never eat insects, and have found nothing in them but seed (usually clover-seed) and tender buds and leaves mixed with minute particles of gravel.

These birds inhabit Patagonia, migrating north to the pampas in winter, where they arrive in April. They usually go in flocks of about forty or fifty individuals, and fly rapidly, keeping very close together. On the ground, however, they are always much scattered, and are so reluctant to rise that they will allow a person to walk or ride through the flock without taking wing, each bird creeping into a little hollow in the surface or behind a tuft of gra.s.s to escape observation. During its winter sojourn on the pampas the flock always selects as a feeding-ground a patch of whitish argillaceous earth, with a scanty withered vegetation; and here when the birds crouch motionless on the ground, to which their grey plumage so closely a.s.similates in colour, it is most difficult to detect them. If a person stands still close to or in the midst of the flock the birds will presently betray their presence by answering each other with a variety of strange notes, resembling the cooing of Pigeons, loud taps on a hollow ground, and other mysterious sounds, which seem to come from beneath the earth.

In the valley of Rio Negro I met with a few of these birds in summer, but could not find their nests.

Durnford, however, who found them breeding in Chupat at the end of October, tells us that the nest is a slight depression in the ground, sometimes lined with a few blades of gra.s.s. "The eggs have a pale stone ground-colour, very thickly but finely speckled with light and dark chocolate markings; they have a polished appearance, and measure 13 8 inch" (Ibis, 1878, p. 403).

394. THINOCORUs...o...b..GNYa.n.u.s, Geoffr. et Less.

(D'ORBIGNY'S SEED-SNIPE.)

+Thinocorus...o...b..gnya.n.u.s+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 500; _Scl.

et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 144; _Tacz. Orn. Per._ iii. p. 281.

_Description._--Above yellowish brown, streaked and marbled with black; wing-feathers blackish with lighter edgings, inner secondaries like the back; back and sides of neck grey: beneath white; throat white, surrounded by a narrow black band; breast grey, joining the grey neck, and bordered beneath by a narrow black band; bill brown, tip black; feet yellow, claws black: whole length 80 inches, wing 55, tail 30. _Female_: above like the male, but without the grey neck: beneath white, sides of neck and breast like the back; throat white.

_Hab._ Western Peru, Bolivia, Chili, and Western Argentina.

Dr. Burmeister met with examples of this Seed-Snipe, which is easily distinguishable from the preceding species by its larger size, in the high valleys of the Sierra of Uspallata, at an elevation of about 6000 feet above the sea-level. It is called "Guancho" by the natives after its peculiar call-note, which, however, sounded more like "Tulco" to Dr.

Burmeister, and is often heard at night-time.

This Seed-Snipe is also found in Peru at high elevations in the Puna region (12,000 to 14,000 feet), where M. Jelski obtained its eggs. A description of them with some interesting notes on the habits of the species are given in Taczanowski's 'Ornithologie du Perou.'

Fam. XLIX. SCOLOPACIDae, or SNIPES.

Like the Plovers, the Snipes are nearly universally distributed over the world's surface, though most abundant in northern regions. Of about 35 Neotropical species 15 are known to occur in the Argentine Republic, and many additions to the list of these wandering birds may be reasonably expected.

Of the fifteen Scolopacidae already recognized as occurring within our limits, all but three are Arctic species, which only visit the far south during their migrations. The three exceptions are the Brazilian Stilt (_Himantopus brasiliensis_), the Paraguay Snipe (_Gallinago paraguaiae_), and the Painted Snipe (_Rhynchaea semicollaris_), which are resident all the year in the Argentine Republic.

395. HIMANTOPUS BRASILIENSIS, Brehm.

(BRAZILIAN STILT.)

+Himantopus nigricollis+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 502 (Pampas); _Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 144 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 314 (Entrerios, Azul, Pampas).

+Himantopus brasiliensis+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 144; _iid.

P. Z. S._ 1873 p. 454; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 198 (Buenos Ayres); _Gibson, Ibis_, 1880, p. 162 (Buenos Ayres).

_Description._--White; line behind each eye, nape, back of neck, interscapulium, and wings black; a narrow white band divides the black neck from the black upper back; bill black; feet orange: whole length 140 inches, wing 85, tail 33, bill from gape 25, tarsus 42. _Female_ similar.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Head of BRAZILIAN STILT. (P. Z. S. 1873, p. 454.)]

_Hab._ South America.

This bird is resident and common in the Plata district, and is called in the vernacular _Teru-real_, also _Zancudo_ (stilt). It frequents marshes and lagoons, and wades in search of food in the shallow water near the margin. It is lively in its movements, and notwithstanding the great length of its legs has a pretty, graceful appearance on the ground. On the wing, however, it is seen at its best, the flight being remarkably swift and free, while the sharply-pointed glossy-black wings contrast finely with the snow-white plumage of the body, and the red legs stretched out straight behind have the appearance of a long slender tail. Stilts are fond of aerial exercises, pursuing each other with marvellous velocity through the air, so that a few moments after the spectator has almost lost sight of them in the sky above they are down again within a few yards of the surface. While pursuing each other they constantly utter their excited barking cries, which in tone remind one of the melodious barking of some hounds.

The nest is made on the low ground close to the water, and consists merely of a slight lining of dry gra.s.s and leaves gathered in a small depression on the surface; the eggs are four in number, pyriform, dark olive colour, spotted with brownish black, the spots being very thickly crowded at the large end. During incubation the male keeps guard and utters a warning note on the appearance of an enemy, whereupon the female quits the nest. They also counterfeit lameness to draw a person from the neighbourhood of the eggs or young; but in a manner peculiar to this species; for owing to the great length of their legs they cannot drag themselves along the ground, as ducks, plovers, partridges, and other birds do. Placing themselves at a distance of forty or fifty yards from the intruder, but with breast towards him, they flutter about a foot above the ground, their long legs dangling under them, and appear as if struggling to rise and repeatedly falling back. If approached they slowly retire, still fluttering just above the gra.s.s and without making any sound. After the young birds are able to fly they remain with the parents until the following spring; and sometimes two or three families a.s.sociate together, raising the number of the flock to fifteen or twenty birds. The young have a sharp querulous cry of two notes; the plumage is brown and pale grey; the eyes black. After nine or ten months the adult plumage is acquired, not by moulting, but by a gradual change in the colours of the feathers. By the same gradual process the eye changes from black to crimson, the outer edge of the iris first a.s.suming a dull reddish colour, which brightens and widens until the whole iris becomes of a vivid red.

396. PHALAROPUS WILSONI, Sabine.

(WILSON'S PHALAROPE.)

+Phalaropus wilsoni+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 144; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 42 (Chupat). +Steganopus wilsoni+, _Baird, Brew., et Ridgw. Water-B. N. A._ i. p. 335.

_Description._--Above cinereous; head above and stripe down the neck clear greyish white; sides of head and neck black; middle of back grey, varied with dark maroon; rump and body beneath white; neck beneath stained with rufous; bill and feet black: whole length 85 inches, wing 55, tail 25. _Female_ similar, but rather brighter.

_Winter plumage_: above dark grey, beneath white.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WILSON'S PHALAROPE. (Seebohm's 'Plovers,' p. 342.)]