XXXII 

 THE SWALLOW-PLOVER 



TERNS are so beautiful that, where they 

 occur, they are apt to attract unto them- 

 selves all attention. This is, I think, the 

 reason why so little is on record regarding 

 the swallow-plovers, which haunt all the larger rivers 

 of India to such an extent that it is scarcely possible 

 to spend an hour on the Ganges, the Jumna, the Gogra, 

 the Indus, the Brahmaputra, the Nerbudda, the 

 Mahanuddy, or even the distant Irawaddy without 

 meeting with a flock of those curious little birds. 



Swallow-plovers, or pratincoles, as they are often 

 called, are easily described. They are plovers that 

 subsist largely upon flying insects which they catch 

 when on the wing. As a result of this habit swallow- 

 plovers (Glareola lactea) have taken on some of the 

 attributes of the swallow, notably the long wings and 

 the broad gape. 



The total length of a swallow-plover,, including 



the tail, is 6J inches, while the wing alone is nearly 



six inches long. It is these long wings that give 



the bird a swallow-Uke appearance. 



The general hue of Glareola lactea is that curious 



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