Attagis is a genus of seedsnipe, a South American family of small gregarious waders which have adapted to a vegetarian diet.
| Attagis | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Charadriiformes |
| Family: | Thinocoridae |
| Genus: | Attagis Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, I. & Lesson, RP, 1831 |
| Type species | |
| Attagis gayi[1] I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire & Lesson, 1831
| |
| Species | |
These birds look superficially like partridges in structure and bill shape. They have short legs and long wings. Their 2-3 eggs are laid in a shallow scrape on the ground.
The genus was erected by the French ornithologists Isidore Saint-Hilaire and René Lesson in 1831 with the rufous-bellied seedsnipe (Attagis gayi) as the type species.[2][3] The name Attagis is the word used for a game bird in Ancient Greek texts. It probably referred to the black francolin (Francolinus francolinus).[4]
Species
editThe genus contains two species:[5]
| Common name | Scientific name and subspecies | Range | Size and ecology | IUCN status and estimated population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rufous-bellied seedsnipe
|
Attagis gayi Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, I & Lesson, RP, 1831 Three subspecies
|
Andes of South America south from Ecuador.
|
Size: Habitat: Diet: |
LC
|
| White-bellied seedsnipe
|
Attagis malouinus (Boddaert, 1783) |
southwestern Argentina and Tierra del Fuego.
|
Size: Habitat: Diet: |
LC
|
These are the larger of the four seedsnipe species.
References
edit- ^ "Thinocoridae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
- ^ Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Isidore; Lesson, René (1831). Centurie Zoologique (in French). pp. 130, 135.
- ^ Peters, James Lee, ed. (1934). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 306.
- ^ Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 60. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- ^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Grebes, flamingos, buttonquail, plovers, painted-snipes, jacanas, plains-wanderer, seedsnipes". World Bird List Version 9.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
- Shorebirds by Hayman, Marchant and Prater ISBN 0-395-60237-8