268 GLAREOLA. 



Variations. No local races of this species are known. 



Synonymy. Glareola megapoda, Gray, List Birds Brit. Mus. iii. p. 62 (1844, descript. null.)- 



Glareola nuchalis liberise, Schlegel, Notes Leyd. Mus. 1881, p. 58 (descript. exig.) . 

 Glareola megapoda, Biittikofer, Notes Leyd. Mus. 1885, p. 233 (descript. bon.). 



Literature. Plates. — Unfigured. 



Habits. — Undescribed. 



Eggs, in tbe Leyden Museum, collected by Biittikofer in Liberia, resemble those of G. lactea 

 in size, but those of G. pratincola in colour. 



A neglected 



species. 



Specific 

 characters. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion . 



Xearest 

 ally. 



It is remarkable that Gray appears never to have described this species. In 

 1844 he evidently regarded it as new; but in 1848, when its discoverers published the 

 ornithological results of their expedition, he probably persuaded them that it was the young 

 of G. cinereu (Allen and Thomson, Narr. Exp. Niger, ii. p. 507). In 1857 Hartlaub (Orn. 

 Westafr. p. 211) regarded it as the young of G. niichalis; but in 1870 Finsch and 

 Hartlaub (Vog. Ostafr. p. 63G), having examined the skins in the British Museum, came 

 to the conclusion that it was, after all, a good species, though they apparently did not 

 discover that it was undescribed. For more than ten years it remained in this neglected 

 condition, although the British Museum possessed a small series of skins, until in 1881 it 

 was rediscovered by Biittikofer in Liberia, and renamed by Schlegel, who separated it as a 

 subspecies from G. nuchalis because the nuchal collar in adult birds was chestnut instead 

 of white. If this had been the only difference between the two species Schlegel's course 

 would probably have been the correct one ; but in G. megapoda the outer webs of the three 

 outer tail-feathers on each side are marffi^ied with hlach down to their bases, a character 

 which distinguishes it from all other species of the genus except from G. ocularis. To 

 complete its diagnosis it is only necessary to add axillaries grey. Adult birds of both 

 sexes have a chestnut nuchal collar, which is very richly coloured in the male, but young in 

 first plumage have no trace of a collar. 



Biittikofer' s Pratincole breeds in Liberia (Biittikofer) and near the mouth of the 

 Niger (Allen and Thomson). 



It is nearest related to G. emiiii, but has many points in common with G. ocularis, 

 in spite of its smaller size. Young in first plumage are probably only distinguishable from 

 young of G. emiiii by their smaller size, the length of M'ing from the carpal joint being 



5-g instead of 6 inches. 



