BALLIDE. 



The Pratincole is an inliabitant of the temperate antl 

 warmer parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia ; and from its 

 great powers of flight, indicated by its long wings, it has, as 

 might be expected, an extensive geographical range. 



Mr. Bullock, of the London Museum, in the eleventh 

 volume of the Transactions of the Linnean Society, thus re- 

 cords the first captures of this species in this country. 



" The first instance of this bird having been killed in 

 Britain occurred in 1807, when one was shot in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Ormskirk in Lancashire : it was preserved by 

 Mr. J. Sherlock, of that place, from whom I purchased it 

 a few days afterwards. On the 16th of August 1812, I 

 killed another specimen of this bird in the Isle of Unst, 

 about three miles from the northern extremity of Britain. 

 When I first discovered it, it rose within a few feet and flcAv 

 round me in the manner of a Swallow, and then alighted close 

 to the head of a cow that was tethered within ten yards' dis- 

 tance. After examining it a few minutes, I returned to the 

 house of T. Edmondson, Esq. for my gun, and, accompanied 

 by that gentleman's brother, went in search of it. After a 

 short time it came out of some growing corn, and was catch- 

 ing insects at the time I. fired ; and, being only wounded in 

 the wing, we had an opportunity of examining it alive. In 

 the form of its bill, wings, and tail, as well as its mode of 

 flight, it greatly resembles the genus Hirundo ; but, contrary 

 to the whole of this family, the legs were long, and bare 

 above the knee, agreeing with Tringa ; and, like the Sand- 

 pipers, it ran with the greatest rapidity when on the ground, 

 or in shallow water, in pursuit of its food, which was wholly 

 of flies, of which its stomach was full." 



The bird killed near Ormskirk is in the collection of the 

 Earl of Derby. The other remained in Mr. Bullock's pos- 

 session till the sale of the contents of his museum in 1819 ; 

 when I find, by a reference to my priced catalogue, that this 



