GHARADBIAD2E. 265 



tliey follow up the main body and commence another attack, and 

 so on, until night sets in and the birds happen to lose the swarm 

 or the locusts are all devoured. I should not forget to mention 

 that the beak of these birds is exactly of such a shape and such 

 dimensions that when they seize the locust the snap cuts off the 

 four wings, and a passer-by sees a continual shower of locusts' 

 wings falling on the ground. At another time, when I was 

 stationed at Fort Peddie, and the country was suffering from the 

 effects of a long drought and was overrun with unusual quan- 

 tities of ants and grasshoppers, we were visited by thousands of 

 these birds, which remained many days devouring these pests. 

 Though the locust-birds are excellent eating, no one ever thinks 

 of destroying them, and they were so fearless that though I often 

 rode or ran amongst them to test their tameness, only a few in 

 my immediate vicinity would rise, the rest continuing to feed ; 

 but every ten minutes or so the whole mass would rise of their 

 own accord and fly, first a few yards to the right, and then to 

 the left, in a slanting direction, presenting alternately a black 

 and white wave of birds some miles in length, a sight never to 

 be forgotten by the spectator." — Ed.] 



309. Glareola pratincola (Linn.). Collared Pratincole. 



Glareola torquata, Gould's Birds of Europe, pi. 265. 



„ „ Gurney, in Ibis, 1863, p. 329. 



Olareola pratincola, Finscli and Haitlaub's Vogel Ost-Afrika's, 

 p. 630. 



[I have not seen a Damara specimen of this Pratincole ; but I 

 find, by one of the MSS. left by Mr. Andersson, that of two Pra- 

 tincoles contained in a collection of Damara birds sent by him 

 to London for identification, one was ascertained to be an example 

 of Glareola Nordmanni, and the other an adult of the present 

 species. 



This and an example received by myself from Natal are the 

 only two well-authenticated instances of the occurrence of this 

 Pratincole in Southern Africa which have come to my know- 

 ledge. 



Mr. Andersson alludes to this species in his MS. notes, and 



