296 THE BIRDS OF DEVON. 



Family GLAREOLID^. 

 [Collared Pratincole. Glareola iwatincola (Linn.). 



An accidental visitor, of extremely rare occurrence. No specimens have 

 been actually obtained in the county, but it has been killed on several 

 occasions in Dorset, Somerset, and Cornwall, and therefore its reported 

 appearance on Dawlish Warren and in Flete Park is not improbable. 



" On the 7th of September, 1851, my friend, W. W. Buller, Esq., saw two Collared 

 Pratincoles on the Warren, a large sand-bank at the mouth of the Exe, South Devon. 

 They appeared very tame, occasionally alighting on the sand, on which their move- 

 ments very much resembled those of the Eing-Dotterel. Their manner of flight was 

 very much liiie that of the Swallow. — T. L. Powys : Lilford Hall, Northants, October 

 9th, 1852." (Zool. 1852, p. 3710.) The late Mr. F. W. L. Ross informed Mr. J. G-at- 

 combe that lie had seen two specimens also on Dawlisli Warren (J. B. R., Trans. Plym. 

 Inst. 1802-(;3, p. 70). 



A single Pratincole is paid to have been seen by a son of the Rev. G. C. Green, of 

 Modbury, near the banks of the Erme in Flete Park, on 14th August, 1885. 



Mr. E. H. E,odd records two Cornish examples : the first was said to have 

 been obtained in September 1811 near Truro, and the second was killed 

 in the first week of June 1874 near the Lizard. " This bird [Mr. Eodd 

 examined it in the flesh] was observed by a boy who was out Coot shooting, 

 flying backwards and forwards like a Swallow over a large pool on the 

 Lizard Downs, and apparently hawking for insects. On its alighting on 

 the margin of the pool, he shot it." (Rodd's ' Eirds of Cornwall,' p. 84.) 



In Somerset we know of but one instance of a Pratincole, which was 

 shot some years ago on the northern slope of the Mendip, not far from 

 Weston-stiper-^Iare, and was for some time in the collection of Mr. 

 Straddling of Chilton Polden, near Pridgwater, passing subse(juently into 

 the possession of Mr. H. Mathias, of Haverfordwest, in whose house we 

 have had the pleasure of seeing it. In Dorsetshire Mr. Mansel-Pleydcll 

 speaks of three Pratincoles : one of them was shot during a very severe 

 winter on the banks of the Stour, when tne river was frozen over, and is 

 in the Pryanston collection, and the other two were seen, but not 

 obtained — one of them on the eastern side of the county, near Christ- 

 church, and the other in November 1855 flying over the Weymouth 

 Backwater. Thus, in the S,W. of England, four examples of tliis rare 

 visitor have been obtained, and as many as seven more (including two 

 others said to have been seen by Mr. lloss on Exmouth Warren) have 

 been seen, but not procured, between the months of June and December. 



The Collared Pratincole runs with great swiftness on the ground, and 

 feeds on insects, for which it also hawks in the air like a Swallow. It is 

 an inhabitant of Southern Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and only rarely 

 strays as far north as the British Isles. A beautiful pair in our collection 

 were shot by Mr. G. E. Mathew, R.N., on the Plain of Troy, while flying 

 over one of the classic streams in company with a great number of the 

 same species.] 



