5l8 PRATINCOLE. 



chiefly known as a migrant, though some may remain on the west 

 coast of Italy, along which the ' Pernice di mare ' is well known on 

 passage. It continues its course to the Camargue in the south 

 of France, where again it finds suitable breeding-ground ; a few 

 ascending the valley of the Rhone to Savoy, and spreading out 

 over the central, western and northern districts of France as far as 

 the mouth of the Somme. In Belgium, Holland, Denmark, and 

 Germany — according to the latest authorities — it is not known, the 

 mountain ranges of Central Europe forming, apparently, a barrier 

 which it does not cross ; and, though found in Austro-Hungary, it 

 is very rare in Poland ; while in Southern Russia and on the eastern 

 side of the Elack Sea the representative form is G. melanoptera, 

 which has black — instead of chestnut — under wing-coverts and axil- 

 laries, with no white alar bar. Both of these forms (as well as 

 one that is intermediate) are found in Asia, especially on salt-plains, 

 as far east as the Tian-Shan range ; and both occur in South Africa 

 down to Natal in the cold season. There are several other members 

 of the family in the Ethiopian, Indian and East Australian regions, 

 but none are known in the New World. 



Early in May the eggs, 2-3 in number, are laid, with their axes 

 parallel, on the sun-dried mud which has been covered with water 

 during the winter-rains ; the shell is thin, the form very oval, the 

 ground-colour buff or grey, marbled and zoned with black or purplish- 

 brown spots : average measurements i"i5 by "9 in. The note, 

 when the breeding-place is invaded, is a shrill kia, kia, kiaia ; the 

 birds swooping close to the intruder's head, and also cowering over 

 the soil sideways or with extended wings, though this proceeding 

 does not necessarily indicate the proximity of their eggs or young. 

 The flight is very Tern-like, but when on the ground the bird runs 

 with great rapidity. The food — often taken on the wing — consists 

 of insects, especially beetles, grasshoppers and locusts. 



The adult has the upper parts clove-brown ; tips of secondaries, 

 tail-coverts, and bases of the tail-feathers white ; throat buff, enclosed 

 by a narrow black bridle; breast brownish-buff; belly white; axil- 

 laries ruddy-chestnut. Length io'5 ; wing 7*5 in. The sexes are 

 alike in plumage. In the young bird the upper parts are much 

 mottled and barred with black and grey, and the breast is profusely 

 striped with dark brown. The nestlings are clove-brown with slight 

 mottlings on the upper parts, and white below; they can run, like 

 Plovers, on emerging from the shell. 



