The Common Pratincole. 59 



Nortli Africa. There is anotlier in S. Russia and Turkestan, fG. melanopteraj , 

 witli black axillaries ; anotlier in Eastern Asia, fG. orientalis) , -whose range meets 

 that of the European bird. Five more are found in Africa and one in Australia. 



Fam ily— GLARE OLIDyE. 



Common Pratincole. 



Glareola pratincola, LiNN. 



AN eccentric family of Limicola are the Pratincoles. Placed by Linnaeus 

 amongst the Swallows, on account of an external similarity of flight and 

 shape, Sundevall, (no mean authority), affiliated them as late as 1873 to the 

 Nightjars ! But structurally they are true Limicolines, with a near relationship to 

 the Coursers. 



Twenty-six satisfactory instances are on record of the Common Pratincole's 

 occurrence in Great Britain, ranging between Cornwall and Unst ; but the greater 

 number of these have been met with on the east and south coasts of England, as 

 might be expected. It occurs as a rare straggler, also, in Denmark, Germany, 

 Belgium, and Northern France. In the South of France it breeds, and 

 throughout the Mediterranean basin, being most abundant in Southern Spain, 

 where it nests in numbers in the marshes of the Guadalquivir and other rivers. 

 South of the Mediterranean it is abundant and resident; it ranges as far south 

 as Somali-land, and has even straggled to Natal, but does not appear to have 

 occurred in the Azores. In Asia it certainly ranges as far as India, but from S. 

 Russia is replaced eastwards by G. melanoptera, as has been mentioned, (which 

 appears to be the commoner visitor to S. Africa). The smaller G. orientalis, with 

 a less forked tail and no white tips to the secondaries, represents it in Eastern 

 Asia. 



