BRITISH BIRDS. 363 



THE PRATINCOLE. 



AUSTRIAN PRATINCOLE. 



(Glareola Torquata* Meyer. Glareole a collier, 

 Temm.) 



BILL short, strong, strait, hooked at the end, gape 

 wide ; nostrils near the base, linear, oblique ; legs 

 long and slender ; toes connected by a membrane at 

 the base ; tail forked, consisting of twelve feathers. 

 Latham notices only three species and four varieties 

 of this genus of birds. In some of its habits, man- 

 ners, and external characters, it strikingly resembles 

 birds of the Swallow kind, while in the length and 

 form of the legs and toes, the rapidity with which it 

 runs, and its frequenting the borders of fresh waters, 

 &c., it comes near the Runners and Waders. 



* The order Alectorides of Temminck includes one British species, 

 vix., Glareola Torquata. 



