56 PLOVER GROUP 



The cream-coloured courser is the typical representative of a genus 

 containing four other species, the collective range of the whole five 

 embracing the desert districts of southern Europe, western Asia, India, 

 and Africa and the Canary Islands ; the typical species ranging from 

 the Mediterranean countries and the Canary and Cape Verd Islands to 

 Afghanistan and the north-west of India. To the British Islands the 

 species is only a rare straggler, twenty-six individuals being the number 

 known to have been taken or seen in England and Wales up to 1901, 

 while of its occurrence in Scotland there is but one instance, and it 

 has never been known to visit Ireland. As regards the habits of such 

 an extremely rare straggler to the British Islands, it will suffice to say 

 that the species is generally seen singly or in small parties on open, 

 sandy, or stony ground, where it is constantly on the move, running 

 quickly about in search of insect-food, very much after the manner of 

 a stone-curlew. 



For want, on account of its rarity, of a proper 

 Pratincole ^ > 1 1 



English name of its own, the typical representa- 



. tive of the Glareolidae is commonly called the 



pratincole, an ugly and uncouth title made by 

 anglicising its Latin designation, the alternative and better name of 

 swallow-plover not being in general use. The pratincoles, in the wider 

 sense of the generic term, comprise a group of about a dozen species, 

 ranging over the warmer parts of the eastern hemisphere inclusive of 

 Australia, and in some cases visiting their extreme southern haunts 

 only in winter. Many of the species appear to be only partially 

 migratory ; the one under consideration being, for instance, a wanderer in 

 some localities and stationary in others. As already mentioned, these 

 birds are broadly distinguished from the coursers by the presence of 

 the hind-toe, which is raised somewhat above the level of the others, 

 while they are further distinguished by their short legs and long wings. 

 In the more typical representatives of the group, like the one under 

 consideration, the tail is also long and deeply forked, thus giving to 

 these birds a remarkable resemblance to swallows. So swallow-like in 

 general appearance is indeed the typical pratincole that it was actually 

 regarded by Linnaeus as a member of the same group as the swallows, 

 and consequently named Hirundo pi-aiincola. 



The true pratincole, whose normal geographical range extends 

 from southern Europe to Central Asia and India, and in winter 

 includes Africa, is somewhat larger than a swallow, measuring i cl- 

 inches in length, and is so unlike other members of the plover-tribe 



