182 A MANUAL OF THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Pratincola Schrank, Fauna Boica, Vol. I., p. 209, (pref. July 20th 1797), 1798. Type (by 

 tautonymy) : Pratincola glareola = Hirundo pratincola Linne\ 



Dromochelidon Landbeck, Jahresh. Ver. Nat. Wiirttemb., 1847, p. 228, after March. Type 

 (by monotypy) : Dromochelidon natrophila Landbeck = Hirundo pratincola Linne. 



Glareoline birds with very short bills, long wings, long tail and short legs with 

 rather long toes. The bill is very short ; the feathering of the fore-head extends 

 on the culmen, so that the depression in which the nostrils lie is covered save the 

 portion showing the nostrils ; it is broad at its base and the tip decurved ; com- 

 paratively like a miniature of that of Stiltia with the greater portion covered with 

 feathers ; the lower mandible is practically without a marked gonys. 



The wings are very long and pointed with the first primary longest, but not 

 attenuate and lengthened as in Stiltia. Tail long and very deeply forked ; the 

 outer tail-feathers measuring almost half the length of the wing. The legs are short ; 

 the metatarsus is regularly scutellate in front and behind ; the toes are long and 

 the outer one connected with the middle one by a web, the inner disconnected ; 

 middle claw extraordinarily long and pectinated ; hind-toe present. 



126. Glareola maldivarum. ORIENTAL PRATINCOLE. 



[Qlareola (Pratincola} maldirarvm Foreter, Fauna Indica, p. 11, (pref. June 20th) 1795: open 



sea near the Maldive Islands. Extra-limital.1 



Gould, Vol. VI., pi. 23 (pt. xxxv.). Dec. 1st, 1848. Mathews, Vol. III., pt. 4, pi. 171, Dec. 



31st, 1913. 



Glareola orientalis Leach, Trans. Linn. Soc. (Lond.), Vol. XIII., pt. I., p. 132, 1821 : Java 



(breeding ?). 



Glareola pratincola parryi Mathews, Austral Av. Rec., Vol. III., pt. 4, p. 70, July 21st, 1917 : 



Parry's Creek, North-west Australia. 



DISTRIBUTION. Winter visitor to Australia, breeding in the northern hemisphere. 



Adult male. General colour of the upper-parts olive-brown, somewhat darker 

 on the head, and a slight shade of rufous on the hind-neck ; bastard-wing, primary- 

 coverts, primary- and secondary-quills dark brown ; upper tail-coverts pure white ; 

 tail also white with dark brown tips to the feathers ; loral space black, which colour 

 is continued in a narrow line below the eye on to the sides of the throat and joining 

 on the fore-neck, encircling the buff colour on the throat : these black feathers have 

 white bases ; the patch on the side of the breast olive-brown like the back ; middle 

 of fore-neck and breast rufous becoming paler on the flanks ; abdomen and under 

 tail-coverts pure white ; axillaries and inner under wing-coverts chestnut, marginal 

 and greater under wing-coverts black, more or less tipped with white ; bill black, 

 basal half of tomium and corner of mouth red ; iris dark brown ; tarsi and feet 

 blackish-brown. Total length 227 mm. ; culmen 16, wing 191, tail 82, tarsus 34. 



Adult female. Similar to the adult male but differs by the absence of the black 

 lores, which are more or less rufous. 



Immature male (of the year). Differs from the adult only in being paler on the 

 throat (which is streaked) and breast, and by the absence of the white bases to the 

 feathers which encircle the buff throat patch. 



Immature female. Differs from the immature male in being almost white on 

 the throat, and the entire absence of rufous on the fore-neck. 



Young. Differs from the adult chiefly in having white margins to the feathers 

 on the upper-surface ; the upper-breast is brown, with lighter margins to the feathers, 

 and the throat has white feathers with narrow brown centres. As the bird gets 

 older, the margins to the feathers of the upper-surface become narrower, the feathers 

 approaching those of the fully adult in colour, and the black rim surrounding the 

 throat becomes pronounced. 



Nestling. Appears to be undescribed. 



Nest. A depression in the soil. 



