i64 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



evening — a time when such creatures are abroad in greatest 

 abundance. The note of this species is described as a rattling 

 kr or Ma rapidly and persistently repeated. When on the ground, 

 the Pratincole often elevates its wings and runs a little distance 

 both before and after flight. It returns to its African winter 

 haunts in autumn, when the young are all safely reared, and then 

 becomes more gregarious, although at all times it is more or less 

 sociable, and usually breeds in scattered colonies. 



Nidification.^ — The breeding season of the Pratincole com- 

 mences in May, and fresh eggs may be found almost throughout 

 that month. An island seems to be preferred, where choice is 

 possible, to the mainland, and the bare, dry mud is selected 

 rather than ground covered with herbage. Colonies of these 

 birds, visited by Mr. Seebohm in Greece and Asia Minor, were 

 established on low islets in the lagoons, and the eggs were 

 deposited on the dry mud, amongst no other herbage but 

 straggling plants of Salsola. Nest there is none, the eggs being 

 laid generally on the bare ground, without even a hollow to hold 

 them. They are two or three in number, in rare instances as 

 many as four, very fragile, and oval in shape. They vary from 

 buff to gray in ground colour, spotted, blotched, and streaked over 

 most of the surface with blackish brown, and marbled with under- 

 lying markings of grayish brown. They measure on an average 

 I '2 inch in length by -g inch in breadth. The period of incuba- 

 tion is unknown, but only one brood is reared in the year. 

 When their breeding grounds are invaded by man, the Pratincoles 

 become very restless and noisy, and often indulge in various 

 antics, even shamming death, or broken limbs, to lure intruders 

 away. Even before the eggs are laid the Pratincole is very 

 prone to these strange actions. Many nests may be found 

 within a comparatively small area, although the birds can scarcely 

 be regarded as gregarious at the breeding grounds. 



Diagnostic Characters. — Glareola, with the axillaries chest- 

 nut, and the tail deeply forked. Length, 9 to 10 inches. 



