GLAREOLIDAE 293 



connects the Charadriidae and the Laridae. The peculiar bill and 

 short, entirely reticulated metatarsus have already been mentioned 

 (pp. 268-269), while both sexes are pure white, the downy young 

 being grey. Chionis alba, the " Kelp Pigeon " of the Ealklands, 

 which inhabits the Straits of Magellan, New Year Island, South 

 Georgia and Louis-Philippe Land, and has once been shot in Ireland, 

 has the bill pinkish or yellowish with a black tip and flat sheath ; 

 the bare face is covered with whitish papillae, and the feet are bluish. 

 C. minor, of Kerguelen Land, Prince Edward and Marion Islands, 

 and the Crozets, has the sheath protuberant, the bill and facial 

 caruncle black, and the feet pinkisli. There is said to be a blunt 

 black carpal spur, less prominent in the female. Both species 

 are often found at sea, flying strongly, or sailing with outspread 

 wings ; but on land their appearance, gait, and manner of court- 

 ing are curiously like those of Pigeons. The note is a gentle 

 chuckle ; the food consists of mussels — which they break with 

 ease — crustaceans, sea-weed, and even eggs of other birds ; their 

 own eggs, two or rarely three in number, are of the Oyster- 

 catcher type, l^ut commonly redder in the markings, so that they 

 recall those of the Ptazor-bill or Tropic-bird. When the flocks 

 separate into pairs for breeding, they are tame and inquisitive, 

 while they fashion a nest of dried plant-stems in hollows among 

 rocks, or occasionally in Petrels' burrows. 



Pam. III. Glareolidae. — Of these Old A\^nid forms Sub-fam 1, 

 Glareolinae, includes the genera Glareola, Cursorius, Pluvianus, and 

 perhaps Ortya:ehis, the flrst two having the middle claw pectinated, 

 and Glareola a short, stout bill with wide gape, a forked tail, and long 

 pointed wings. G. fratincola, the Pratincole, which occasionally 

 visits Britain by way of Western France, breeds in Southern 

 Europe and JSTorth Africa, and extends to Sind and the Tian-Shan 

 Mountains in Asia, migrating to other parts of India and to 

 South Africa. It is brown above, with blacker wina-s and tail, the 

 secondaries having white tips, and the rectrices white bases and 

 coverts ; the throat is buff, surrounded by a black line, the breast 

 brownish, the abdomen white ; the axillaries and inner under 

 wing-coverts are chestnut, the bill and feet blackish, with red base 

 to the former. G. orientalis, found from Mongolia to Ceylon, the 

 Malay Archipelago, and North Australia, has the tail less forked 

 and little white on the secondaries ; G. ocularis, of Madagascar, 

 recorded from Mauritius and East Africa, has a pale chestnut 



