PR A TIN COLES. 4 7 1 



immature birds assume the bright summer plumage of the adults, although they 

 differ from the latter in having brighter wing-coverts ; these feathers being only 

 changed by the adults in the autumn, and thus permanently presenting the dull 

 hues of the winter dress. In their habits all the members of the order are more 

 or less migratory, and from this cause the winter distribution of the group is well- 

 nigh cosmopolitan. Considerable diversity of view obtains as to the classification 

 of the typical Limicolee. By some they are divided into the three family 

 groups of plovers, sandpipers and snipes, and pratincoles ; the thicknees — here 

 classed with the bustards — being added as a fourth. In his monograph on the 

 distribution of these birds, Mr. Seebohm classed the whole of them (inclusive of 

 the thicknees) in a single family, but in a later work he removed the thicknees 

 and the black-backed courser to form one family, and the coursers and pratincoles, 

 together with certain other birds, as a second family ; both of which were placed 

 next to the gulls. An equally marked diversity of view obtains as to the number 

 of genera into which these birds should be divided ; Mr. Seebohm being one of 

 those who uses such terms in an extended sense. In both these matters we 

 endeavour to take a middle course. 



Pratixcoles and Coursers. 



X Family CURSORIID^. 



The birds above-named differ from all the other members of the order in the 

 want of basipterygoid processes on the rostrum of the under surface of the skull ; 

 while they are further characterised by having their oval nostrils opening on the 

 surface of the beak without being sunk in a groove. In both these characters 

 they resemble the thicknees, to which the black-backed courser presents a further 

 approximation in the oval (holorhinal) nasal apertures of the skull. Externally, 

 these birds may be distinguished from the thicknees and bustards by the presence 

 of four toes in the pratincoles and by the metatarsus of the coursers being covered 

 with scutes instead of reticulated scales. The absence of basipterygoid processes 

 in these birds cannot justify their affiliation to the gulls ; but it may be a question 

 whether the pratincoles are rightly included in the same family as the coursers. 



The forked tail and somewhat swallow-like appearance and 

 habits of the pratincole {Glareola pratincola) render it, at first sight, 

 somewhat difficult to believe that these birds are near relatives of the plovers ; but 

 closer observation will show that their comparatively long legs are adapted for 

 running in the usual plover-like manner, and that it is only when on the wing 

 hawking for flies that a superficial resemblance is presented to the swallows. 

 Moreover, in certain members of the genus, the forking of the tail is well-nigh 

 obsolete. As a group, these birds, of which there are ten species, are characterised 

 by the presence of the first toe, and by the tail being more or less forked. The 

 third toe is united to the fourth by a short membrane ; and the first quill of the 

 wings is the longest. By Mr. Seebohm they are regarded as specially modified 

 allies of the coursers, retaining the first toe of the ancestral stock. Many of them 

 show resemblances to the latter in their black under wing-coverts, white upper 



