GLAREOLA. 



Glareola orientalis, Leach, Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 132 (1820) . 



Glareola thermophilaj ") 



Glareola longipes, ) Hodgson, Gray's Zool. Miscell. p. 86 (1844, young) . 



259 



Synonymy. 



Plates.— Gould, Birds of Australia, vi. pi. 23. 

 Habits. — Legge, Birds of Ceylon, p. 980. 

 Eggs. — Gates, Stray Feathers, vii. p. 49. 



Literature. 



The Oriental Pratincole may be diagnosed on three characters -.—AcciUaries chestnut; Specific 

 basal half of outer webs of tail feathers white ; tail slightly forked, the central feathers less <'^^''^°*«^«- 

 than an inch shorter than the outer ones. These characters are found in young as well as 

 in adult, but no other species of Pratincole combines the three. 



Young birds have the tail less forked than old ones : the outer tail-feathers project Young. 

 beyond the central ones sometimes as much as 1-15 inch in the latter, and sometimes as 

 little as •? inch in the former. 



It is found in India as far west as Scinde (Doig, Stray Feathers, viii, p. 375), Ceylon, GeograpM- 

 the Burma Peninsula as far south as Singapore (Kelham, Ibis, 1882, p. 6), East Mongoha tfj/'"''"^''' 

 (Prjevalsky, Rowley's Orn. Miscellany, ii. p. 435), extending northwards into Dauria 

 (Radde, Reisen ira Siiden von Ost-Sibirien, ii. p. 307) i, China (there are examples in the 

 Swinhoe collection from the neighbourhood of Pekin and the island of Formosa), Sumatra, 

 Java, most of the islands of the Malay Archipelago, and the extreme north of Austraha. 

 Layard procured it on the Philippine Islands (Lord Walden, Ibis, 1872, p. 105) ; it has 

 been recorded from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Hume, Stray Feathers, 1874, 

 p. 284) ; the Leyden Museum possesses examples from. Java, Borneo, and Timor (Schlegel, 

 Mus. Pays-Bas, Cursores, p. 17) ; Buxton obtained it on Sumatra (liord Tweeddale, Ibis, 

 lS77, p. 322); I have examples from North Australia (Cape York) and from Siam ; and 

 Finsch records it from New Guinea, Celebes, and many of the smaller islands of the Malay 

 Archipelago. It is probably a resident in most parts of its range, shifting its quarters from 

 time to time during the cool season. In South Siberia, East MougoHa, and North China 

 it is only found in summer, and to Australia it is probably only a winter visitor. 



Its chestnut axillaries point to its close relationship on the one hand to G. ocularis, 

 which it also resembles in its slightly forked tail, and on the other to G. ^jratincola, which 

 has the same black gular line. 



^ Eadde found this species breeding in South-east Dauria, on the salt plains of Nertohinsk, but wrongly 

 identified it as O. pratincola. He mentions, however, the great amount of white on the tail-feathers of the 

 Siberian bird when compared with European esamples. 



Ifearest 

 allies. 



2l2 



