Attagis Explained

Attagis is a genus of seedsnipe, a South American family of small gregarious waders which have adapted to a vegetarian diet.

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.^{[1] [2]} The name Attagis is the word used for a game bird in Ancient Greek texts. It probably referred to the black francolin (Francolinus francolinus).^[3]

Species

The genus contains two species:^[4]

These are the larger of the four seedsnipe species.

References

• Shorebirds by Hayman, Marchant and Prater

Notes and References

1. Book: Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire . Isidore . Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire . Lesson . René . René Lesson . 1831 . Centurie Zoologique . fr . 130, 135 .
2. Book: Peters . James Lee . James L. Peters . 1934 . Check-list of Birds of the World . 2 . Harvard University Press . Cambridge, Massachusetts . 306 .
3. Book: Jobling, James A. . 2010. The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names . Christopher Helm . London . 978-1-4081-2501-4 . 60 .
4. Web site: Gill . Frank . Frank Gill (ornithologist) . Donsker . David . 2019 . Grebes, flamingos, buttonquail, plovers, painted-snipes, jacanas, plains-wanderer, seedsnipes . World Bird List Version 9.2 . International Ornithologists' Union . 19 July 2019 .