134 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



Adult Male. General colour above olive-brown, slightly 

 glossed with green ; wing coverts and long inner secondaries 

 like the back ; quills greenish-black, the secondaries externally 

 olive-brown, inclining to ashy-whitish at their ends; upper 

 tail-coverts white ; tail greatly forked, the feathers blackish, 

 with a green gloss and paler brown tips, the base white, this 

 gradually increasing in extent towards the outer feathers, while 

 on the outermost one the white occupies the basal two- thirds ; 

 head like the back, the feathers below the eye whitish ; the 

 fore-part of the cheeks and throat sandy-buff, surrounded by a 

 white line, followed by a black line, which runs from the front 

 part of the eye, and is followed by a whitish shade ; ear-coverts, 

 hinder cheeks, sides of neck, fore-neck, and breast dark ashy- 

 brown ; lower breast, abdomen, thighs, and under tail-coverts 

 white ; axillaries and inner under wing-coverts chestnut, the 

 former with black bases ; rest of wing-coverts blackish, with a 

 little patch of white near the lower primary-coverts ; bill dark 

 brown, red at the base behind the nostril ; feet black ; iris 

 brown. Total length, 8'8 inches; culmen, cr8; wing, 7-5; 

 tail, 3'8 ; tarsus, 1*25. 



Adult Female. Similar to the male in colour. Total length, 

 9-2 inches; culmen, 07 ; wing, 7*15 ; tail, 4-2; tarsus, 1-2. 



Young Birds. Recognisable by the whitish edgings to the 

 feathers of the upper surface, all the light markings having a 

 sub-terminal bar of black; quills and tail-feathers similarly 

 fringed and tipped with black ; cheeks and throat creamy- 

 white, with narrow blackish shaft-lines ; fore-neck and lower 

 throat ashy-grey, edged with white and mottled with sub- 

 terminal bars of black ; chest creamy-buff ; remainder of 

 under surface of body white. 



Range in Great Britain. An occasional visitor in spring an.l 

 autumn, appearing during the season of migration. It has 

 occurred in most of our southern and eastern counties, but 

 also in Lancashire and Cumberland, and even in Unst, the 

 most northern of the Shetland Isles. One example has been 

 recorded from Co. Cork in Ireland. 



Range outside the British Islands. In localities suited to its 

 habits, the Pratincole is found breeding in most of the 

 Mediterranean countries, whence, according to Mr. Howard 



