Opetiorhynchus lanceolatus, Gould, MS. and on plate XX.
My specimen was killed at Coquimbo, on the coast of Chile. It differs from O. Patagonicus in its larger size, much stronger feet and bill, and more dusky plumage, and in the white streak over the eye being less plainly marked. In this species the red band, which extends from the body obliquely across the wings in all the species, reaches to the third primary, whereas in O. Patagonicus, O. vulgaris, and O. antarcticus, that feather is not marked, or so faintly, as scarcely to be distinguishable. In the genus Furnarius, the wing feathers are marked in an analogous manner. I saw this species (as I believe) on the coast near the mouth of the valley of Copiapó.
I will now make a few remarks on the habits of these three coast species. The first, O. antarcticus, is confined, as I have every reason to believe, to the Falkland Islands. The second inhabits Tierra del Fuego, and in Chiloe and Central Chile is replaced by the local variety with a long beak, and this still further northward by the O. nigrofumosus. On the east side of the continent I do not believe these marine species extend so far northward. I never saw one on the shores of the Plata, but they occur in Central Patagonia. These birds live almost exclusively on the sea beach, whether formed of shingle or rock, and feed just above the surf on the matter thrown up by the waves. The pebbly beds of large rivers sometimes tempt a solitary pair to wander far from the coast. Thus at Santa Cruz I saw one at least one hundred miles inland, and I several times observed the same thing in Chile, which has likewise been remarked by Kittlitz, who has given a very faithful account of the habits of O. Patagonicus. I must add that I also saw this bird in the stony and arid valleys in the Cordillera, at a height of at least 8000 feet. In Tierra del Fuego I scarcely ever saw one twenty yards from the beach, and both there and at the Falkland Islands they may frequently be seen walking on the buoyant leaves of the Fucus giganteus, at some little distance from the shore. In these respects, the birds of this genus entirely replace in habits many species of Tringa. In the stomachs of those I opened I found small crabs and little shells, and one Buccinum even a quarter of an inch long: Kittlitz says, he found in one, besides such objects, some small seeds. They are very quiet, tame and solitary, but they may not unfrequently be seen in pairs. They hop and likewise run quickly; in which latter respect, and likewise in their greater tameness, they differ from the O. vulgaris. Their cry is seldom uttered, but is a quick repetition of a shrill note, like that of the last named bird, and of several species of Furnarius.
Birds. Pl. 20.
Opetiorhynchus lanceolatus.
Birds. Pl. 21.
Eremobius phœnicurus.
On the 20th of September, I found, near Valparaiso, the nest of O. Patagonicus, with young birds in it: it was placed in a small hole in the roof of a deep cavern, not far from the bank of a pebbly stream. Three months later in the summer I found, in the Chonos Archipelago (Lat. 45°), a nest of this species, placed in a small hole beneath an old tree, close to the sea beach. The nest was composed of coarse grass and was untidily built. The egg rather elongated; length 1·11 of an inch, width in broadest part ·8 of an inch; perfectly white.
Genus.—Eremobius. Gould.
Rostrum capitis longitudine seu longius, fere rectum, ad apicem deorsum curvatum, haud emarginatum; naribus parvis, basalibus, oblongis, in sulco positis; Alæ breves, remigibus primariis secundariisque fere æqualibus, plumis 4, 5, 6-que subæqualibus longissimisque; Cauda mediocris apice rotundato; Tarsi sublongi anticè squamis ferè obsoletis induti, halluce digito medio breviore, digitis lateralibus inæqualibus, internis brevioribus.