LOTUS BIRD. 181 



Nestling in down. Appears to be undescribed ; in egg, lappet scarcely 

 discernible, and feet almost normal, no long claws yet developed. 



Nest. Composed of sedge, grass and aquatic plants, placed close to the 

 water's edge, or upon any bunches of weeds or grass growing in the water which 

 may be sufficiently strong to bear its weight. 



Eggs. Clutch, four ; ground-colour brownish-buff, marked all over with 

 lines of blackish-brown and highly polished ; those from Melville Island have no 

 polish and are much lighter ; axis 28-31 mm., diameter 21-23. 



Breeding-season. September to January. 



Distribution and forms. Australia, only in the north but ranging as far south 

 as northern New South Wales, and New Guinea, the Moluccas and Celebes. Five 

 subspecies are separable, thus : /. g. gallinacea (Temminck and Laugier) from Celebes ; 

 /. g. novceguinece (Ramsay) from New Guinea, separable by its much blacker colora- 

 tion, more oil-green sheen, not bronze-brown as in the succeeding forms ; /. g. 

 novcehollandicB (Salvadori) a paler, bronze-brown form with less black on the back 

 and the tail bronze-black ; /. g. rothschildi Mathews from North-west Australia, a 

 much darker race than the preceding, but not as dark as /. g. novceguinece ; and 

 I.g. melvillensis Mathews from Melville Island, with a heavier bill than the preceding 

 and the coloration of the under-surface more subdued. 



SUPERFAMILY GLAREOLOIDEA. 



We unite the Pratincoles and Coursers in this superf amily as, though the extremes 

 seem very different, a regular gradation of species is still existent. The bill is more 

 conical and the linear nostrils are placed parallel to the edges of the culmen ; the 

 dertrum is less pronounced and the legs are scute! lated in front and behind. The 

 neck may be long or short, the wings may be very long and pointed or short, while 

 the tail may be short and rounded or very long and deeply forked, and the legs 

 may be very long or very short, a hind-toe absent or present. As above noted the 

 connecting links are all available. The superficial features of the Pratincoles are 

 so peculiar that great difference of opinion was formerly held as to their location, 

 but now it is generally admitted that they are aberrant Plover forms. As usual, 

 some anatomists have been just as puzzled as to the origin of the variations seen in 

 internal features also. 



The schizognathous skull has the nasals of schizorhinal origin, but showing 

 pseudo-holorhiny, while basipterygoid processes and occipital fontanelles are 

 absent, and supraorbital grooves present. The tracheo-bronchial syrinx has a 

 pair of intrinsic muscles and the leg muscle formula is ABXY+. The coracoids 

 do not overlap. 



FAMILY GLAREOLID.E. 



The three genera represented in Australia are easily distinguishable by means 

 of superficial characters, and it may be noted that the two breeding forms are 

 peculiarly modified, one so much as to obscure its relationship without careful study. 

 The other, while still a true Pratincole, has the legs lengthened after the style of the 

 Coursers. 



Genus GLAREOLA. 



Glareola Brisson, Ornith., Vol. I., p. 48, Vol. V., p. 141, 1760. Type (by tautonymy) : 



Glareola = Hirundo pratincola Linne. 



Trachelia Scopoli, Annus I., Hist. Nat., p. 110, 1769. Type (by monotypy) : Hirundo 



pratincola Linnet 



Pratincola Forster, Fauna Indica, p. 11, (pref. June 20th) 1795. Type (by monotypy): 



Glareola (Pratincola} maldivarum Forster. 



