''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
René-Primevère Lesson (20 March 1794 – 28 April 1849) was a French surgeon, naturalist, ornithologist, and herpetologist.
Biography
Lesson was born at Rochefort, and entered the Naval Medical School in Rochefort at the age of sixteen. He ...
in 1831 with the
rufous-bellied seedsnipe
The rufous-bellied seedsnipe (''Attagis gayi'') is a bird in suborder Scolopaci of order Charadriiformes, the shorebirds. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru.
Taxonomy and systematics
The rufous-bellied seedsnipe share ...
(''Attagis gayi'') as the
type species. The name ''Attagis'' is the word used for a game bird in
Ancient Greek texts. It probably referred to the
black francolin
The black francolin (''Francolinus francolinus'') is a gamebird in the pheasant family Phasianidae of the order Galliformes, gallinaceous birds. It was formerly known as the black partridge. It is the state bird of Haryana state, India (locally ...
(''Francolinus francolinus'').
Species
The genus contains two species:
These are the larger of the four seedsnipe species.
References
* ''Shorebirds'' by Hayman, Marchant and Prater
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2220919
Bird genera
Taxa named by René Lesson