COLLARED PRATINCOLE. 51 



Length to end of tail 10 inches ; wing from flexure 7£ ; 

 tail 4 ; bill along the ridge -^ ; along the edge of loAver 

 mandible 44- ; tarsus l-jV ; hind toe -fV, its claw -^ ; second 

 toe -j^, its claw -^ ; third toe -^V, its claw -^ ; fourth toe -^ ; 

 its claw -Ar. 



Female. — The female is similar to the male. 



Variations. — Individuals vary in their tints, both ac- 

 cording to age and the season of the year, the moult being 

 said to be double, although the winter plumage differs little 

 from that of summer. 



Habits. — M. Temminck informs us that this species 

 " inhabits the margins of rivers, inland seas, and lakes, of 

 which the waters form large rushy marshes ; lives in the 

 provinces bordering on the confines of Asia, and in the 

 southern countries of that vast continent ; is common on the 

 saline lakes and vast marshes of Hungary ; is a regular or 

 accidental visitant in some provinces of Germany and 

 France, Switzerland, and Italy, but of very rare occurrence 

 in Holland and England. It feeds especially on flies and 

 other winged insects which live among the rushes and reeds, 

 darting upon them with astonishing rapidity, and seizing 

 them both on wing and by running. It nestles among the 

 thickest reeds and tall plants, and lays three or four eggs." 



Montagu states that an individual was shot near Liver- 

 pool, on the 18th of May, 1804. It was killed in the act of 

 taking beetles on wing, the remains of which were found in 

 its stomach. This specimen, which was seen when newly 

 shot, by Mr. Bullock, was sent to Lord Stanley's collection. 

 In 1812, Mr. Bullock had the good fortune to procure another 

 in Unst, the most northern of the Shetland Islands. " When 

 I first discovered it," he says, in the Transactions of the Lin- 

 ncean Society, " 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 within ten yards distance. 

 After examining it a few minutes, I returned to the house of 

 T. Edmondston, Esq., for my gun, and, accompanied by that 



