214 GRALLATORES. GLAREOLA.  PrariInco.e. 
tending to elucidate the manners of the species, I quote them 
from the description he has given in the Transactions of the 
Linnean Society. “ When I first discovered it, it rose within 
a few feet, and flew round me in the manner of a Swallow, 
and then alighted close to the head of a cow that was tethered 
within ten yards distance. After examining it a few minutes, 
I returned to the house of T. EpMonpsone, Esq. for my gun, 
and, accompanied by that gentleman’s brother, went in 
search of it. After a short time, it came out of some grow- 
ing corn, and was catching insects at the time I fired, and, 
being only wounded in the wing, we had an opportunity of 
examining it alive. In the form of its bill, wings, and tail, as 
well as its mode of flight, it greatly resembles the genus 
Hirundo ; but, contrary to the whole of this family, the legs 
were long, and bare above the knee, agreeing with Tringa ; 
and, like the Sandpipers, it ran with the greatest rapidity 
when on the ground, or in shallow water, in pursuit of its 
food, which was wholly of flies, and of which its stomach 
was full’’ In the above description we recognise nothing 
that allies this bird to the Hirundinide, beyond certain pecu- 
liarities possessed to an equal extent by some of the Terns 
(of the family of the Laride, and the order Natatores), as 
well as by birds of other families and orders, viz. a full de- 
velopment of the wings and tail for the purposes of flight, 
which mere external resemblances will not imply any real 
affinity existing; on the other hand, its manners and ana- 
tomy point out the true situation it holds in the natural 
system.—The Pratincole inhabits the borders of lakes, rivers, 
and inland seas, particularly such as form extensive marshes 
covered with reeds, and other aquatic herbage. In Hungary, 
it abounds on the marshy confines of the lakes Neusidel and 
Baladon, where it was seen by Trmmrncx in flocks of 
hundreds together; and it is also met with in some provin- 
ces of Germany and France, as well as in Switzerland and 
Italy, but in these latter countries only as a bird of passage, 
or rather perhaps as an occasional visitant. In 'Tartary, and 
