GLAEEOLA. 



257 



Glareola glareola, 

 Glareola torquata, 

 Glareola senegalensis, 

 Glareola naevia, 



1 



>Brisson, Orn. v< 



■p. 141 (1760, adult), 

 p. 145 (1760, immature). 

 p. 148 (1760, immature), 

 p. 147 (1760, young). 



Synonymy. 



Hirundo pratincola, Linneus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 345 (1766). 



Trachelia pratincola {Linn.), Scopoli, Ann. I. Hist. Nat. p. 110 (1769). 



Glareola austriaca, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 695 (1788). 



Glareola pratincola [Linn.], Leach, Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 131 (1820). 



Pratincola glareola {Briss.), Degland, Om. Eur. ii. p. 107 (1843). 



Glareola limbata, RUppell, Syst. Uebers. p. 113, pi. 43 (1845, young). 



Dromochelidon natrophila, Landbeck, Jahresh. Ver. vat. Nat. Wurttemb. 1816, p. 228. 



Plates. — Dresser, Birds of Europe, vii. pi. 513 ; Gould, Birds of Gt. Brit, iv. pi. 46. 

 Habits. — Seebohm, Brit. Birds, iii. p. 69. 

 Eggs. — Seebohm, Brit. Birds, pi. 24. 



Literature. 



The Common Pratincole may be diagnosed by its chestnut axillaries and deeply forked Specific 



tail. No other species of this genus combines both characters ; young in first plumage of 

 G. melanoptera have chestnut tips to their otherwise black axillaries, and young in first 

 plumage of G. pratincola have the fork of the tail much less deep (sometimes as little as 1"25 

 inch) than in adults (in which the fork is occasionally as much as 2'7 inch). 



The Common Pratincole neither breeds so far north nor winters so far south as its ally 

 G. melanoptera. It is a salt-water bird, living near the coast, or if inland preferring the 

 neighbourhood of salt lakes. It is a summer visitor to the basins of the Mediterranean, the 

 Black and Caspian Seas, and the salt lakes of Eussian Turkestan as far east as Ala-kul 

 (Pinsch, Ibis, 1877, p. 52). It breeds in Spain and Algeria in considerable numbers ; but 

 in the south of France and Italy it is principally known on migration, though it breeds in 

 Sardinia and Sicily. I found it common on the west coast of Greece at Missolonghi, in the 

 vaUey of the Lower Danube, and on the coast of Asia Minor. It is a summer visitor to 

 Palestine (Tristram, Fauna and Flora of Palestine, p. 128), and, in small numbers, to Persia 

 (Blanford, Zool. and Geol. of Persia, ii. p. 282) ; but to Scinde (Butler, Stray Feathers, vii. 

 p. 186) and to North India it can only be regarded as a rare visitor on migration, as it is 

 to the British Islands and to North Europe. It passes through Egypt on migration (Shelley, 

 Ibis, 1871, p. 144), and appears in incredible numbers in Kordofanand Senaar in October, 

 wintering also in Abyssinia (Heuglin, Orn. N.O.-Afr. ii. p. 983) and in West Africa, 

 where it has been recorded from Senegal, the Gambia (Hartlaub, Journ. Orn. 1854, p. 214), 

 and the Gold Coast (Eraser, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1843, p. 53). To Angola (Monteiro, Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. 1869, p. 571), Damara-Land (Andersson, Birds of Damara-Land, p. 265), the 

 Cape Colony (Layard), and Natal (Ayres, Ibis, 1863, p. 329) it is probably only an 

 accidental winter visitor. 



2l 



characters. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



