PRATINCOLE. 13 



arrival of part of the flock on their migrations. 'By the 

 beginning of August, the young fly about with the adult birds; 

 the parents being very much attached to their brood, accompany 

 them until the beginning of September, when they one and 

 all think of returning and going southward for the winter.' 



They are capable of being easily tamed. In their wild 

 state they are restless, lively, sociable, that is among themselves, 

 for they rarely associate with other species. 'Where they 

 meet with suitable ground, they remain for some time in the 

 neighbourhood, flying away in a body and often returning again 

 in a moment, to the great surprise of the beholder who may 

 happen to have startled them up.' If alarmed when . feeding, 

 they strike the tail two or three times against the ground, 

 and soon after take wing. 



They fly with extraordinary rapidity, and their evolutions 

 in the air are exceedingly graceful, quick, and beautiful, and 

 they also run very fast. 'When a flight of them passes 

 through the air within sight, they proceed very swiftly, and, 

 on lowering to alight they shoot like arrows by one another; 

 finally they once more open their wings to their full length 

 and highly raised, and then settle, rather closely spread over 

 the ground.' 



They take their food on the wing, hawking about after the 

 manner of the Swallows, and also on the ground, from whence 

 they spring into the air to catch their prey. They live on 

 flies, gnats, cockchaffers, and other beetles, grasshoppers, and 

 other insects and worms. The larger sorts they knock against 

 the ground with their bills, to kill, and to dislodge the harder 

 parts. 



Meyer says, 'the call-note sounds like the word 'carjah,' 

 'carjah,' and 'bedrse,' 'bedrse,' very quickly expressed.' 



A slight depression in the soil serves for a nest, or it is 

 placed, Selby says, among rushes or other thick herbage. 

 Many nests are often made not far from each other. 



The eggs, four in number, are spotted with brown. 



Male; length, from about nine inches to ten and a quarter, 

 or even ten and a half or over, according to the age of the 

 bird, the tail being shorter at first; bill, somewhat hooked, 

 short, and broad at the base, black, the sides and the base 

 of the lower mandible, which is shorter than the upper, and 

 received into it, scarlet orange, brightest in spring. The bill 

 is smaller in young birds. Iris, light reddish brown, the 

 eyelids clothed with small white feathers; a black line runs to 



