Jour rare Species of British Birds. 177 
HinvuNDo PnaTINCOLA. 
Hirundo Pratincola. Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 345. 12. 
Glareola austriaca. Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 753. 
Austrian Pratincole. Lath. Syn. v. p. 222. t. 85. 
The first instance of this bird having been killed in Britain 
occurs in 1807, when one was shot in the neighbourhood of 
Ormskirk in Lancashire : it was preserved by Mr. J. Sherlock of 
that place, from whom I purchased it a few days afterwards. 
On the 16th of August last I killed another specimen of this 
bird (now sent for the inspection of the Society) in the Isle of 
Unst, about three miles from the northern extremity of Britain. 
When I first discovered it, it rose within a few feet and flew 
round me in the manner of a swallow, and then alighted close to 
the head of a cow that was tethered withiu ten yards distance. 
After examining it a few minutes I returned to the house of T. Ed- 
mondson, Esq. for my gun, and, accompanied by that gentle- 
man's brother, went in search of it. After a short time it came 
out of some growing corn, and was catching insects at the 
time I fired; and being only wounded in the wing, we had an 
opportunity of examining it alive. In the form of its bill, wings, 
and tail, as well as its mode of flight, it greatly resembles the 
genus Hirundo ; but, contrary to the whole of this family, the 
legs were long, and bare above the knee, agreeing with Tringa ; 
and like the sandpipers, it ran with the greatest rapidity, when 
on the ground or in shallow water, in pursuit of its food, which 
was wholly of flies, of which its stomach was full. Whilst living, 
the edges of both mandibles, and the base of the lower one 
were bright scarlet orange, the legs purple brown, and the irides 
light brown. It was a male, and weighed 20z. 11 dwt. None of 
the gentlemen of the island who saw it ever observed it in the 
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