308 CHAEADEIAD^. 



Sab. Derby, N.W. Australia, Gulf of Carpentaria, Eichmond 

 and Clarence Rivers Districts; New South Wales, Interior, 

 Victoria and South Australia. (JRamsay.') 



Sub-Family GLARE OLIN^. 

 Genus GLAlREOLA, Brisson. 



GLAREOLA GRALLARIA, Temminch. 

 Australian Pratincole. 

 GouW, Sandhh. Bds. Aust, Vol. ii., sp. 515, p. 243. 3^^. ^ 



" The home of the Australian Pratincole is the interior of New 

 South Wales, and the northern portion of the province of South 

 Australia, it is also found occasionally during the wgt seasons in 

 the neighbourhood of Cape York and Port Darwin. In New 

 South Wales I have received specimens from the Lachlan and 

 Darling Rivers, and Mr. James Ramsay has noticed it at Tyndarie, 

 in the Bourke district. Mr. E. G. Vickery has kindly permitted 

 me to describe an egg from his collection, taken near Wilcannia 

 on the Darling River, in September 1880. He informs me that 

 the parent bird was seen to fly from the eggs, and before they 

 were taken to return again and sit on the nest. The eggs were 

 three in number, the ground colour is of a creamy-white, duU 

 light stone-brown or light buff, well covered with irregularly 

 shaped blotches, dots, and spots and freckles of dull umber and 

 sienna-brown with a few dots and dashes almost black, and 

 obsolete spots here and there of slaty -grey ; length 1 -3 inch by 1 

 inch, in shape they are slightly oval, slightly swollen at the thicker 

 end and not pointed. An egg of this species in the collection of 

 Mr. K. H. Bennett measures 1-24 x '95 inch; none differ 

 materially from Mr. Vickery's specimens. Mr. Bennett informs 

 tne that they select a bare spot on the ground where the earth or 

 sand assimilates to the colour and markings of the eggs. They 

 breed during October." {Bam8ay,P.L.S.,N.S. TT., Vol.vii.,p. 410.) 



