BLACK-WINGED FBATINCOLE. 153 



Order XT.— ALECTORIDES. 



Famihj GLAREOLID^. (Bonaparte. J 



Genus Glareola. 



Oene?-ic. Characters. — Beak short, convex, compressed towards the point; 

 the upper mandible curved the distal half of its length, without being 

 notched. Nostrils basal, lateral, and obliquely pierced. Legs bare for a 

 short space above the knee; tarsi long and rather slender; three toes in 

 front and one behind, the middle one being united to the exterior by a 

 short membrane; the interior toe free, the posterior toe articulated upon 

 the tarsus. Wings very long, the first primary much longer than the others. 

 Tail forked. 



BLACK-WINGED PRATINCOLE. 



Glareola melanoptera. 



Olareola pratincola, Pallas; Zoog. Ross. As., ii., p. 150, 1831. 



" melanoptera, Nordmann; Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Mosc, 



1842, pi. 2, p. 314. 

 " nordmanni, Fischer, tom. cit. 



" pallasii, "Bruch." Schlegel; Rev. Crit. p. 91, 1844. 



Specific Characters. — The under wing coverts of a uniform smoky black. 

 Length (French measure) nine inches six lines; wings three inches eight 

 lines; external tail feathers three inches eight lines; middle tail feathers two 

 inches three lines; tarsus one inch five lines; middle toe eight lines; claw 

 of middle toe three lines; beak from gape ten lines; depth of two mandibles, 

 through the nostrils, two lines and a half. — Schlegel. 



This bird, wliicli is considered specifically distinct from the Pratincole 

 of the British lists, is found in Greece and Bessarabia more plentifully 

 than its congener. According to Pallas, who first described the 

 species in his " Zoographia," it is very common from April to the 



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