LIMICOLjE. 



COLLARED PRATINCOLE. 231 



GLAREOLID^. 



Glareola pratincola (Linnaeus*). 



THE COLLARED PRATINCOLE. 



Glareola torquata. 



Glareola, Brissoni. — Beak short, convex, compressed towards the point, 

 the upper mandible curved throughout the distal half of its length. Nostrils 

 basal, lateral, pierced obliquely. Legs bare for a short space above the tarsal 

 joint ; long and rather slender ; three toes in front, one behind ; the middle toe 

 united by a short membrane to the outer toe ; the inner toe free ; the hind toe 

 articulated upon the tarsus ; claws long and subulate. Wings very long, the first 

 quill-feather the longest. 



The Pratincole is an inhabitant of the temperate and 

 warmer parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia, and occurs in 

 the British Islands as a rare straggler. The earliest record 

 is perhaps by Graves, who says that one was taken at Bold- 

 ness, in Cumberland, in 1807 ; one in September, 1811, 

 near Truro, in Cornwall ; and one on Eude-waters, in Surrey, 

 prior to 1812. | He gives a coloured illustration, for which 

 he says he is indebted to Mr. J. Bullock, of the London 



* Hirundo Pratincola, Linnoeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 345 (1766). 



+ Ornithologie, v. p. 141 (1760). 



X British Ornithology, ii., not paged (1813). 



