PRATINCOLE. 183 



Eggs. Clutch, two ; ground-colour pale stone, marked all over with bold 

 markings of dark purplish-black, and underlying ones of smoky -grey ; axis 31 mm., 

 diameter 24. 



Breeding-season. April, May. 



Distribution and forms. Breeding in eastern Siberia, migrating southward to 

 Australia in winter. The subspecies are imperfectly known, so that Mathews's 

 G. p. parryi may even later be recognised as separable from the form occurring in 

 Java, the migration routes being as yet undetermined. 



Genus STILTIA. 



Stiltia Gray, Cat. Gen. Subgen. Birds, p. Ill, Oct. 1855, ex Bonaparte MS. Type (by original 

 designation) : Glareola isabella Vieillot. 



Rhimphalea Heine und Reichenow, Nomencl. Mus. Hein., p. 338, (pref. Sept.) 1890. New 

 name for Stiltia Gray. 



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

 small feet. 



The bill is short, very broad at the base, tip decurved and sharp ; the lower 

 mandible straight, gonydial angle a little marked, but tip slightly decurved. The 

 wings are very long and pointed, the first primary somewhat attenuated and exceeding 

 the second by nearly an inch. The tail is short and slightly emarginate, only about 

 a third, or less, the length of the wing. The legs are long, the metatarsus is regularly 

 scutellate, both before and behind ; the toes comparatively long and slender, the 

 claws very long, the middle claw not at all pectinated ; hind -toe present. The 

 combination of short Glareoline bill, very long attenuate wings, short tail and long 

 Cursorine legs, make this genus distinctive and unmistakable. 



127. Stiltia isabella. PRATINCOLE. 



Gould, Vol. VI., pi. 22 (pt. xxm.), June 1st, 1846. Mathews, Vol. III., pt. 4, pi. 170, Dec. 

 31st, 1913. 



Glareola Isabella Vieillot, Analyse nouv. Ornith., p. 69, April 14th, 1816 : Australia. 



Glareola grallaria Temminck, Manuel d'Orn., 2 ed., Vol. II., p. 503, Oct. 21st, 1820 : South 



Asia. 



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



DISTRIBUTION. Australia generally. Not Tasmania. 



Adult male. Pale olive-brown on the head, back, scapulars, and wings ; all the 

 feathers margined with rufous except on the rump ; hind-neck, fore-neck, and 

 breast rufous ; bastard-wing, primary -coverts and quills blackish, the short inner- 

 most primaries pale brown and edged with white on the inner webs, the shaft of the 

 outer primary conspicuously white, secondaries uniform olive-brown ; upper tail- 

 coverts white ; base of tail and outer pair of tail-feathers also white with a broad 

 subterminal black band, which becomes much narrower on the outer feathers, 

 tipped with brown on the outer webs and white on the inner ones ; lores blackish ; 

 throat inclining to white ; flanks and abdomen maroon -chestnut ; vent and under 

 tail-coverts white ; axillaries and under wing-coverts black ; bill, base scarlet, tip 

 black ; iris and feet brown. Total length 210 mm. ; culmen 15, wing 198, tail 60, 

 tarsus 50. 



Adult female. Similar to the adult male. 



Immature. Have very broad reddish-buff edges to the feathers of the upper- 

 surface, giving it a uniform appearance. 



Nestling in down. Does not appear to have been described. 



Nest. A depression in the soil. 



Eggs. Clutch, two ; ground-colour pale stone, marked all over (sometimes 



