COMMON PRATINCOLE. 3 



by feigning lameness, standing with drooping wings, or running along the ground 

 as if unable to fly. When once upon the wing their flight was rapid and powerful, 

 like that of a Tern. They are not, strictly speaking, gregarious in their habits. 

 We never found anything like a colony of them upon any one island. We rarely 

 visited any of the numerous islands without finding at least one pair of birds upon 

 it, and perhaps none of the islands contained more than half a dozen pairs, and 

 they were scattered about at a distance from one another. They do not make 

 any nest, but lay their eggs upon the bare ground, seldom, if ever, taking the 

 trouble to scratch a hollow or to collect what dry grass or seaweed may be at 

 hand. They seem studiously to avoid coarse grass or rank herbage, and prefer to 

 lay their eggs on the dried mud, sheltered only by the straggling plants oiSahola, 

 which grow all over the lowest and wettest parts of the islands. The number of 

 eggs was usually two, occasionally three, and only in one instance four ; probably 

 the latter clutch was the production of two females 



" The eggs of the Pratincole are very fragile, oval in form, being scarcely 

 more pointed at one end than the other. They vary in ground-colour from citron 

 or yellow-ochre to pale slate, richly spotted all over with streaks and blotches of 

 dark brown, approaching black, in some instances most so at the larger end. The 

 underlying spots of pale greyish brown are usually very distinct, and often impart 

 great beauty to the egg, giving it a marbled appearance. They vary in length 

 from 1'35 to I'l inch, and in breadth from 1-0 to "9 inch. It is scarcely possible 

 to confuse the eggs of the Pratincole with those of any other British bird." 



Messrs. A. Chapman and W. J. Buck found this species breeding in the 

 marisma of the Lower Guadalquivir. They write * : — " May 11th, — The Pratin- 

 coles are now beginning to lay — one or two eggs in each Tiest : but subsequently 

 we got them in basketsfull. Some of these eggs when freshly-laid have a beautiful 

 purplish gloss. Three is their complement, and they hardly make any nest, 

 merely a few broken chips of shells." 



* 'Wild Spain ' (London : Gurney & Jackson, 1893), pp. 91, 92. 



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