GLAREOLA LACTEA. 985 



the inhabitants of the town were familiar with them, and informed me that they bred in the sand hills in 

 March. In the following October I received some specimens from Mr. J. Williams, of the Ceylon Public- 

 Works Department. In October 1874 I met with a large flock frequenting the shores of Kottiar Bay, near 

 the mouths of the Mahawelliganga. It is likewise to be found, I believe, in the north of the Jaffna peninsula, 

 and was perhaps observed there by Layard, though he did not record it in his notes. When I described the 

 bird to him in 1874, during our voyage to the Antipodes, he remarked that he believed he had seen it at 

 Pt. Pedro on one or two occasions. I am not aware that it has been seen on the west coast. 



On the mainland this little Pratincole is chiefly found from the Deccan north-eastwards to Bengal, and 

 thence ranges into Burmah and Tenasserim. I do not find it recorded from the extreme south, and, in fact, 

 Messrs. Davidson and Wenden's notice of it on the river Bhima, in the Deccan, during the cold season, is 

 the most southerly register of its occurrence that I have noticed. Mr. Ball notes it from the Godaveri 

 valley, Raipur, and Orissa north of the Mahanadi, also from Sambalpur, north and south of the same river, 

 and finally from Lohardugga, Manbhum, and Bardwan. Captain Beavan likewise observed it on the sand 

 banks of the Damoodah river, near the Manbhum district. It extends throughout Bengal and the North-west 

 Provinces, breeding along the banks of the Ganges and Jumna, and is also recorded from the Nerbudda and 

 the Indus ; and to this latter river it would appear to resort in the Punjab to breed, for it is not said to 

 inhabit Sindh at all. Turning east again we find Mr. Cripps writing of it as being rather common in Furreed- 

 pore, frequenting sandy churs on the main rivers. 



Captain Feilden and Mr. Oates notice it as common on the sand banks of the Irrawaddy ; and Dr. Arm- 

 strong met with it near Elephant Point, although it was rare there. It does not range far towards the south, 

 being recorded, as regards Tenasserim, only from the tract of country between the Salween and Sittang rivers, 

 where it was met with by Mr. Davison on small creeks or in the Thatone plains. 



Habits. — The Lesser Pratincole delights in sand banks and bare places near water. The great red sand 

 hills near Hambantota, where I first discovered it in Ceylon, formed a splendid shelter for it ; in the hollows 

 of this vast formation it was found in little troops of a dozen or more, reposing during the heat of the day, in 

 company with small flocks of the large Sand-Plover {JEgialitis geoffroyi) ; or else the dry foreshores of the salt 

 lagoons were resorted to, and there it might be seen sitting in pairs or several together in scattered company. 



It is just as crepuscular, if not more so, than the preceding species ; long after sunset, when it could 

 scarcely be seen in the dusk of the evening, I noticed it hawking for insects about water-holes, flying very 

 rapidly, with something of the action of the Nightjar, but with more speed and power; in the early morning 

 it commenced again to feed, but desisted about 6 a.m., and scattered over the district to rest in the localities 

 above named. When roused in the daytime, its flight is like that of the Lesser Tern ; but it can at once be 

 distinguished from this bird by the black axillaries and under wing-coverts. It walks slowly but easily, taking 

 a few little paces and then halting. Its food in Ceylon consists of grasshoppers, moths, flies, and green bugs, 

 of which latter it devours enormous quantities . 



Jerdon writes of it, " Now and then large parties are seen hawking over the plains and fields ; but it prefers 

 hunting up and down the banks of rivers, over sandy churs, and by large tanks. In localities where they 

 abound, vast parties may be seen every evening after sunset taking a long flight in a certain direction, capturing 

 various insects as they fly. They live entirely on insects, which they capture in the air, in many cases 

 Coleoptera. Several which I examined had only partaken of a species of Cicindela." 



The Pratincoles were originally styled Perdruv de mer by the French, a name singularly inappropriate. 



Nidification. — In the south-east of Ceylon the small Swallow-Plover must breed at the beginning of the 

 year ; for I shot the young in yearling plumage in June. They evidently nest on the great sand bank. In 

 Northern India it breeds in March, April, and May, and nests in company with Terns and Skimmers 

 {Rhynchops), depositing its eggs a little apart from these latter birds. Mr. Hume thus writes of its nidifi- 

 cation :— " The nests are mere holes in the sand, three inches or so across, and an inch or an inch and a half 

 deep. Where the bank is absolutely unfrequented and un visited, there these holes are scratched in the open, 

 without the slightest attempt at concealment ; but where boatmen towing boats are passing from time to 

 time, there the birds generally make their nests at the roots of, and partly concealed by, tufts of grass or 



