Attagis

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
Attagis gayi Attagis malouinus

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]

Genus Attagis – Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, I. & Lesson, RP, 1831 – two species

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 A. g. gayi A. g. latrelillii A. g. simonsi	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.