GRALL^. 



97 



to and fro with surprising swiftness, in spite of its sliort legs. The flight is described 

 as swallow-like, or rather like that of the terns. The note, according to Seebolini, is 

 a peculiar rattle, imjiossible to express on paper, though the jirincij)al sound may be 

 represented by kr rapidly repeated. Nauniann mentions a peculiar movement of 

 this bird, which he says is exactly like the dipping of the body and jerking of the 

 tail of the wheat-ear {Saxicola cetumthe). The food of the pratincole consists exclu- 

 sively of insects, and an allied species {G. melon ojytera), differing in having black 

 under wing-coverts, which occurs from southeastern Kussia southwards as far as the 

 Cape Colony, is highly estimated as a valuable destroyer of the grasshoppers, accord- 

 ing to the interesting account given by the Austrian traveler, Mr. Ilolub. 



FlO. 43. — Arenaria interpreB, tunistono. 



Asm.all family, Dromadid.e, with a single living representative (Dramas ardeofa), 

 may find a proper resting place here after having been knocked around between the 

 herons and the terns. The aspect is that of a plover, or rather a thick-knee with a 

 somewhat large and peculiar bill, and Temminck guessed prett\ near the truth when 

 he referred it to the nei<Jiborhood of the latter, for the Dutch zoologist, J. van dcr 

 Hoeven, has shown that the skeleton is very mucii like that of the oyster-catcher, next 

 to which we j)l.ace it with the remark that it differs from the true Charadiidao in liav- 

 ing no occipital foramina and no basiptcrygoid processes, in these respects .igrecmg 

 with the foregoing families. The 'crab-plover' inhabits shores from India, westward 



VOL. IV. — 7 



