es 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 Falklands, 
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 
earuncle black, and the feet pinkish. 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, but commonly redder in the markings, so that they 
recall those of the Razor-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. 
Fam. IIT. Glareolidae.—Of these Old World forms Sub-fam 1, 
Glareolinae, includes the genera Glareola, Cursorvus, Pluvianus, and 
perhaps Ortyxelus, the first two having the middle claw pectinated, 
and Glareola a short, stout bill with wide gape, a forked tail, and long 
pointed wings. G. pratincola, the Pratincole, which occasionally 
visits Britain by way of Western France, breeds in Southern 
Europe and North 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 wings 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. @. 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 
