GLAREOLA 729 



Perdrix de mer, French ; Perdiz do mar, Portug. ; Canaster a, 

 Span. ; Pernice di mare, Ital. ; Halsband-Giarol, German ; 

 Tirkuschka-lugovaya, Russ. 



ad. (Spain;. Upper parts dull earth-brown ; nape, sides of head, and 

 ear-coverts washed with rusty yellow ; primaries blackish with a faint 

 greenish gloss j secondaries broadly tipped with white ; outer tail-feathers 

 white on the outer web and on the base of inner web, otherwise blackish, 

 the rest white on the basal, blackish on the terminal half; upper tail- 

 coverts white ; lores and a streak passing under the eye, round the throat, 

 forming a shield, black, the innermost part yellowish buff ; breast and 

 flanks pale greyish brown ; rest of under parts white ; under wing-coverts 

 and axillaries rich fox-red ; bill black, the base of lower, and basal edge of 

 upper mandible red ; legs brownish black ; iris dark brown. Culmen 0'7, 

 wing 7*5, tail, deeply forked, 4'8, the middle feathers 2*3 shorter than the 

 outer ones, tarsus 1*25 inch. Sexes alike. The young bird has the 

 feathers on the upper parts with paler and white margins, the throat dirty 

 yellowish and the breast striped and marked with blackish. 



Hob. Southern Europe, occasionally straying as far north 

 as Shetland ; North Africa, moving in winter as far south as 

 Natal ; Asia Minor and Central Asia as far east as North-west 

 India. 



Inhabits open flat ground and desert places in the vicinity 

 of pools or swamps, and is very Plover-like in its general habits. 

 It feeds on insects of various kinds, chiefly coleoptera, which it 

 both picks up from the ground, and captures on the wing. Its 

 note is a shrill whistle, kia, kia t usually uttered on the wing. 

 It makes no nest, but deposits in May its 2 to 4 eggs in a slight 

 depression on the ground. These are oval, varying from 

 ochreous yellow to pale slate, richly spotted and blotched with 

 greyish brown underlying-, and blackish brown surface- 

 markings, and measure about 1'22 by 0'96. 



1017. SUBSP. GLAREOLA ORIENTALIS. 



Glareola orientalis, Leach, Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 132, pi. xiii. (1820) ; 

 Gould, B. of Austral, vi. pi. 23 ; David and Oust. Ois. Chine, 

 p. 431 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. xxiv. p. 58 ; Blanf. F. Brit. Ind. 

 Birds, iv. p. 214 ; Tacz. F. 0. Sib. O. p. 813. 



ad. (India). Differs from G. pratincola in having the tail less 

 forked, the secondaries not white at the ends, the lores black, the chin and 

 throat pale rufous, and the breast more rufous. Culmen 0'65, wing 7^25, 

 tail 3-15, the middle feathers about an inch only shorter than the outer 

 ones, tarsus 1*3 inch. 



