214 



Subfamily GLAREOLIN^E. 



Genus GLAEEOLA, Brisson, 1760. 



This genus consists of a well-marked group of birds, commonly 

 known as Pratincoles, but called Swallow-Plovers by Jerdon. 

 The latter name is appropriate, for the species resemble Swallows 

 both in some details of structure and in night. They keep much 

 to river-beds and the borders of tanks and backwaters, they feed on 

 insects, and lay from 2 to 4 eggs in. a small hollow in the sand, 

 without, as a rule, any lining. They possess to a remarkable 

 extent the habit, common to many Plovers, of feign ing inability to 

 fly in order to distract the attention of men, and probably of 

 animals, from their eggs and young, a favourite ruse with Glareola 

 being to lie prone on the ground with wings extended. 



In this genus the bill is short, broad, and rather high at the 

 base ; the culmen much arched and the gape wide ; the nostril is 

 in a depression at the base of the bill ; wings long and narrow, 

 generally when closed extending some distance beyond the tail ; 

 1st primary longest ; tarsus short, scutulate before and behind ; 

 hind toe well developed, raised above the anterior toes at the 

 base ; lateral toes short, the outer and middle toe united by a 

 short web ; claws long, that of the middle toe distinctly pectinated 

 on the inner margin. 



Nine species of Glareola are known, inhabiting the greater part of 

 the Eastern hemisphere : of these three occur in India, two of 

 which belong to the typical section of the genus with forked tails ; 

 the third, with the tail almost even, is by many placed with five 

 other species in a distinct genus, Galaetoehrysea. 



Key to the Species. 



a. Tail deeply forked ; wing 7-8 inches. 



a'. Outer tail-leathers exceed median pair by 



0-75-1-25 inches .................... G. orientalis, p. 214. 



b'. Outer tail-feathers exceed median pair by 



1-5-2-5 inches ...................... G. pratincola, p. 216. 



b. Tail nearly even ; wing under 6 inches .... G. lactea, p. 216. 



1425. Glareola orientalis. The Large Indian Pratincole or 

 Swallow-Plover. 



Glareola orientalis, Leach, Trans. Linn. Sac. xiii, p. 132, pi. xiii 

 (1821) ; myth, Cat. p. 259; Jerdon, B. I. iii, p.. 631 ; Myth, Ibis, 

 1867, p. 163 ; Ball, J, A. S. JB. xli, pt. 2, p. 287 ; Hume, 8. F. ii, 

 p. 284; Field, ibid. p. 465; WardL-Rams. Ibis, 1877, p. 4b'9 

 Hume Sf Dav. S. I. vi, p. 454 ; Oates, S. F. vii, p. 49 ; Hume, 

 Cat. no. 842 ; Doia, S. F. viii, p. 375 ; Legge, Birds Ceyl p. 980 ; 

 Butler, S. F. ix, p. 425; Davidson, S. F. x, p. 318 ; Oates, B. B. 

 ii, p. 361 ; Seebohm, Charadr. p. 258 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 325 ; 

 id. Jour. Bom. N. H. Soc. vi, p. 17; Oates in Hume's N. $ K 

 2nd ed. iii, p. 319 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xxiv, p. 58. 



The Large Swalloiv- Plover, Jerdon. 



