136 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 







they make another circuit overhead, and the whole flock passes 

 quietly away." 



Colonel Irby writes : " We found this bird in April, on the 

 dried mud at the lakes of Meshree el Haddar, south of 

 Laroche in Marocco, in countless thousands. They had not 

 then begun to lay ; so possibly some of these swarms would 

 pass on northwards. We there witnessed a number of these birds 

 mobbing a Marsh-Harrier which had intruded on their ground, 

 buffeting and bullying him just as Peewits will do when a 

 Hawk passes near their breeding-ground. At times at least 

 one hundred Pratincoles were dashing at once about the 

 Harrier, which soon made its best way out of their district. 

 Pratincoles are very crepuscular in their habits, flitting up and 

 down over the surface of a river or pool much after the manner 

 of the Indian Skimmer (Rhynchops albicollis) very late in the 

 evening as late, indeed, as they can be distinguished. They 

 are then silent, but by day especially when disturbed, their cry 

 is ceaseless, and the Moorish name of ' Gharrak ' is doubtless 

 derived from, as it is suggestive of, their note. They are birds 

 of powerful flight, reminding one much of the Terns in this 

 respect" In Greece, Mr. Seebohm found the Pratincoles less 

 gregarious, and on the islands of the lagoon of Missolonghi he 

 often met with single pairs nesting, and on none of them 

 more than half a dozen pairs. 



Nest. None, the eggs being laid in a depression in the 

 ground, though, as often as not, there is no perceptible hole. 



Eggs. Three in number, varying remarkably in colour and 

 markings, which are sometimes so thickly distributed as to 

 hide the ground-colour of the egg itself. This varies from 

 a stony-buff to grey, creamy-buff, or clay-brown, and the black 

 marks take the form of small or large spots or irregular 

 blotches, and they are, as a rule, universally distributed over 

 the egg. The underlying spots are faint purplish-grey, and 

 are also spread indiscriminately over the egg. Axis, 1-1-1-4 

 inch ; diam., 0-9-0-95. 



THE WADERS. SUB-ORDER CHARADRII. 



In this Sub-order are comprised all the Plovers, Sand- 

 pipers, and Snipes, generally known as Waders. They all have 



