354 MR. J. E. HARTING ON RARE : [ape aes 
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 ting-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 Ist 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 atreeless 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-bé 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 Plover; 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 ants, of which 
they are especially fond. 
Like other species of the Limicole, 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 affinity to that genus of birds, which is also 
indicated in the anatomical structure. 
