222 GLAREOLlDvE. 



webs concolorous with the back, the inner web, and subterminally 

 on both webs also black, the edges of the tips white. 



Length.. — 10-5 to 11 inches, wing G'S to 1, bill black, 1'06 in length 

 in front, irides brown. 



Hah. — Sind, }''uiijab, N. W. Provinces, Oudh, Beloochistan, Pereia, 

 Afghanistan, Kutch, Gnzerat and Rajputana. Breeds in Sind from 

 May to July. Extremely common on bare or open grassy plains. 



Family, GLAREOLID^,— Swallow Plovers. 

 Bill short, convex, broad at the base, compressed to tip; wings 

 long, first quill longest; tail even or forked ; tarsi short, reticulated; 

 three toes in front, one behind very small ; gape large. 



Gen. Glareola. 



Tail short and even, or long and forked ; other characters as in the 

 Family. 

 Glareola orientalis, Leac/(. Lin. Tr. xiii. 132; GonJd. B. Aust. 



vi. pi. 23 ; Schl'A. Handlist Dierk. t. 7, 79; Jcrdon, B. lad. iii. p. 631 ; 

 Sir. F. ii. p. 28i, 465; viii. p. 371; Murray, Hdhlc, ZooL, ^r., Sind, 

 p. 208. — The Large Swallow Plover. 



Forehead, crown, back of head, sides of neck, ear-coverts, back, 

 scapulars and wing-coverts hair brown ; upper tail-coverts Avhite ; 

 tail forked, basally white, the feathers broadly tipped with dark brown ; 

 chin and throat rufescent, a few of the feathers in some specimens 

 tipped dark brown; a dark line from each side of the mandible to 

 below the neck, enclosing the rufous chin, throat and breast ; upper 

 abdomen and flanks earthy brown, with a tinge of rufescent ; lower 

 abdomen, vent and under tail-coverts white ; axillarics and under 

 "wdng-coverts behind, chestnut ; primaries dark brown, almost black ; 

 the shaft of the first primary white ; a few of the upper secondaries 

 tipped white ; irides dark brown ; bill black ; gape reddish ; legs and 

 feet dusky brown. 



Length. — 10 to 10*5 inches, wing 7*5, tail 4-25 to 4'5. 



Hah. — Sind, Bengal and the Deccan ; affects fields, and open or 

 cultivated land in small flocks. It has, like others of the genus, a very 

 rapid and swallow-like flight. Breeds in Sind. Mr. S. Doig in an article 

 in Stray Feathers, vol. viii, p. 375, gives an account of its nidificatioa 

 in company with Glarenla iiratlncola. *' The breeding ground, ^^ he says, 

 "was about 15 acres in extent, and was a salt plain with patches of 

 coarse sedge here and there on it, the whole being surrounded by dense 

 tamarisk and rush jungle, and was situated about half a mile from the 

 bank of the 'Narra.' The nests were slight hollows scraped in the 

 ground, and the greatest number of eggs in any nest was three, which 

 seemed to be the normal number, but some contained only two eggs, 

 of a light dirty green or dra.li colour, covered all over with dark purple 

 blotches, dense at the broader end, and forming a zone. In shape they 

 are from broad ovals to nearly spherical, and vary in size from 1 "1 to 

 1"35 in lengthy and from "80 to 1*05 in width. '^ 



The distribution of the Glarcolidce in India is not perlVctly known. 



