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PRATINCOLES. 



THE remarkable genus Glareola or Swallow Plovers, 

 to be placed next, continued for some time uncertain 

 of its proper station ; but it is evidently intimately 

 connected with the last. In many of the Gralla- 

 torial birds, we have seen the wings developed to a 

 great extent ; but the principal varieties of structure 

 are exhibited in the feet and legs, the organs on 

 which this order is, in a great measure, dependant 

 for seeking after its prey. The tail, comparatively 

 of small use to wading birds, has been formed short, 

 or verging in some to a rounded or considerably 

 wedge-shaped form, but never to a greatly deve- 

 loped fork, as in the Fissirostral tribes, and this is 

 what has puzzled systematists in looking for a sta- 

 tion to place the Pratincoles. In all the other parts, 

 the form of the Plovers is more or less kept up. We 

 have the bill of the last ; the colouring of the plu- 

 mage continues pale rufous or fawn colour beneath, 

 and has a narrow collar, representing the pectoral 

 and abdominal bands, the upper parts generally 

 glossed with a green or bronze reflection ; the feet 

 resembling Tringa, at the same time showing those 

 of a Fissirostral type ; while the tail, formed on the 

 model of the swallows', is the only exception among 

 all the Grallatorial birds. 



GLAREOLA Generic characters. Bill short, de- 

 pressed, and expanded at the base, compressed 



