354 MR. J. E. HARTING ON RARE [Apr. 4, 



Equal in size to the well-known Collared Pratincole (G.pratincola), 

 which, dispersed throughout Southern and Eastern Europe, Africa, 

 and a great portion of Southern Asia, occasionally visits the British 

 Islands, it is distinguished from that species by having no " collar," 

 the head and nape black, a white spot under the eye and passing be- 

 hind it, the quills much blacker than in G. pratincola, the tail squarer 

 and blacker, the outer feathers scarcely longer than the rest, and with 

 a white spot on their distal half. The species is well figured in the 

 excellent work of Messrs. Pollen and Van Dam (Recherches sur la 

 Faune de Madagascar,' 1868), who, however, give no account of its 

 bree iing-habits, nor describe its eggs. 



It was not until thirty years after this bird had been described 

 that any information concerning its habits was published. In 

 1863 Messrs. Roch and Edward Newton, in an account of their 

 visit to Madagascar printed in ' The Ibis ' for that year, recorded 

 their having met with it near Tamatave. They remarked : — 

 " At our first halting-place on the road from Tamatave to the 

 capital, on the 1st of October, we saw and shot several Pratincoles. 

 The river Hivondrona runs out into the sea about a mile and a 

 half below a village bearing the same name, and has on its left 

 bank a treeless sandy plain. Here we found these birds, together 

 with Sanderlings and two species of Plover. Unfortunately, those 

 that we skinned were destroyed, and we have no specimens by 

 which to identify them ; but we have little doubt that the Pratincoles 

 were of the same species as an example afterwards obtained by Dr. 

 Roch ;" who says : — " At Nossi-be a small village to the north of 

 Tamatave, I found many Pratincoles in the native burial-ground, 

 which appeared to be their breeding-place, though I was unable to 

 discover either eggs or young. Their manners strongly reminded 

 me of those of the Lapwing, screaming high in the air, and then 

 darting along the ground as if to draw my attention away from their 

 broods. I thus easily obtained several specimens." 



The following year Mr. Edward Newton observed these birds in 

 the same locality in September ('Ibis' 1863, p. 455). 



Dr. Roch has described the flight of this Pratincole as reminding 

 him of that of the Lapwing ; but the late Mr. Swinhoe was doubtless 

 more accurate when, describing the habits of Glareola orientalis as 

 observed by him in Formosa, he likened its appearance on the wing 

 to the Golden piover ; for, like that bird, the Pratincoles have long, 

 pointed, narrow flight-feathers, unlike the full rounded wing of the 

 Lapwing. 



Their food consists chiefly of sand-beetles and flying auts, of which 

 they are especially fond. 



Like other species of the Limicolce, the Pratincoles lay their eggs 

 in a depression of the ground, with very little nest, and the young 

 run as soon as they are hatched. 



The egg of Glareola ocularis is much paler than that of G. pratin- 

 cola, and assimilates both in shape and colour to the eggs of 

 Cursorius, showing an afTmity to that genus of birds, which is also 

 indicated in the anatomical structure. 



