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COMMON PRATINCOLE. 



GLAREOLA PRATINCOLA {Linn.). 



liirundo pratincola, Linn. S. N. i. p. 345 (1766). 



Glareola torquataj Naum. ix. p. 437, xiii. p. 261 ; Hewitson, 



i. p. 290. 

 Glareola pratincola, Macg. iv. p. 49; Yarr. ed. A; iii. p. 231 ; 



Dresser, vii. p. 411. 



Perdrix de Mer, Glareole a collier, French ; Giarol, Brach- 

 Schwalbe, German j Canasteru, Spanish. 



This very remarkable bird is a rai'e straggler to our 

 country, and has not, to my knowledge, been recorded 

 as breeding in Western Europe anywhere to the north 

 of the great plains that border the lower course of the 

 Rhone. From Cape St. Vincent to Cyprus and Pales- 

 tine the Pratincole is a well-known and locally common 

 summer visitor, and breeds in great abundance in 

 Morocco, certain ])arts of Southern Spain, Algeria, 

 Tunis, and Sicily. I have on many occasions met with 

 great numbers of this interesting species in the 

 "marisma" on both sides of the Guadalquivir below 

 Seville ; it arrives in that district from the south towards 

 the end of April, and may from that date l;e seen. 



