Attagis
Genus of birds
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Attagis is a genus of seedsnipe, a South American family of small gregarious waders which have adapted to a vegetarian diet.
| Attagis | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification  | |
| 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
The 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
|
_-_Papallacta_-_Ecuador.jpg)
These are the larger of the four seedsnipe species.