GLAREOLIN^. 



531 



^.^f-3i&i._ 



THE PRATINCOLE. 



Glareola pratincola (Linnaeus). 



Even to the south of Europe the Pratincole is only a summer- 

 visitor, though it occasionally wanders to Great Britain on both spring 

 and autumn migrations. Its occurrence was first noticed in 1807, 

 when examples were obtained almost simultaneously at Ormskirk in 

 Lancashire and Bowness in Cumberland, while subsequently four 

 specimens have been taken in Norfolk, one in Cambridgeshire, one 

 in Essex, one in Lincolnshire, three in Yorkshire, and one, strange 

 to say, in Unst, the most northern of the Shetland Islands. In the 

 south of England, Surrey, Hants, Dorset, Wilts, Somerset, Devon 

 and Cornwall have been visited ; and a bird was observed near Hay 

 in Breconshire by Messrs. Baskerville, who were well acquainted 

 with the species. In Ireland, it is said that one, which was not 

 preserved, was shot nearly fifty years ago in co. Cork ; and the 

 identification was probably correct, for all the evidence that I have 

 been able to collect indicates that this species reaches our shores by 

 traversing the western half of France. 



Early in April the Pratincole returns from its winter-quarters 

 in the south to North Africa, where large numbers remain to breed ; 

 while others pass through Egypt and nest in Palestine, Asia Minor, 

 the Dobrudscha, the neighbourhood of Missolonghi in Greece, 

 Sicily, the Balearic Islands, and the plains at the mouth of the 

 Guadalquivir in Spain. In other parts of the Mediterranean basin 



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