GLABEOLA. 



259 



Glareola orientalis, Leach, Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 132 (1820). 



Glareola thermophila, ") 



. . . r Hodgson, Gray s Zool. Miscell. p. 86 (1844, young) . 



Synonymy. 



Plates. — Gould, Birds of Australia, vi. pi. 23. 

 Habits. — Legge, Birds of Ceylon, p. 980. 

 Eggs. — Oates, Stray Feathers, vii. p. 49. 



Literature. 



The Oriental Pratincole may be diagnosed on three characters : — Axillaries chestnut ; 

 basal half of outer webs of tail-feathers white ; tail slightly forked, the central feathers less 

 than an inch shorter than the outer ones. These characters are found in young as well as 

 in adult, but no other species of Pratincole combines the three. 



Young birds have the tail less forked than old ones : the outer tail-feathers project 

 beyond the central ones sometimes as much as IT 5 inch in the latter, and sometimes as 

 little as - 7 inch in the former. 



It is found in India as far west as Scinde (Doig, Stray Feathers, viii. p. 375), Ceylon, 

 the Burma Peninsula as far south as Singapore (Kelham, Ibis, 1882, p. 6), East Mongolia 

 (Prjevalsky, Rowley's Orn. Miscellany, ii. p. 435), extending northwards into Dauria 

 (Radde, Reisen im Suden von Ost-Sibirien, ii. p. 307) 1 , China (there are examples in the 

 Svvinhoe collection from the neighbourhood of Pekin and the island of Formosa), Sumatra, 

 Java, most of the islands of the Malay Archipelago, and the extreme north of Australia. 

 Layard procured it on the Philippine Islands (Lord Walden, Ibis, 1872, p. 105) ; it has 

 been recorded from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Hume, Stray Feathers, 1874, 

 p. 284) ; the Leyden Museum possesses examples from Java, Borneo, and Timor (Schlegel, 

 Mus. Pays-Bas, Cursores, p. 17) ; Buxton obtained it on Sumatra (Lord Tweeddale, Ibis, 

 1S77, p. 322); I have examples from North Australia (Cape York) and from Siam ; and 

 Finsch records it from New Guinea, Celebes, and many of the smaller islands of the Malay 

 Archipelago. It is probably a resident in most parts of its range, shifting its quarters from 

 time to time during the cool season. In South Siberia, East Mongolia, and North China 

 it is only found in summer, and to Australia it is probably only a winter visitor. 



Its chestnut axillaries point to its close relationship on the one hand to G. ocularis, 

 which it also resembles in its slightly forked tail, and on the other to G. jjratincola, which 

 has the same black gular line. 



Specific 

 characters. 



Young. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



Nearest 

 allies. 



1 Eadde found this species breeding in South-east Dauria, on the salt plains of Nertchinsk, but wrongly 

 identified it as G. jpratincola. He mentions, however, the great amount of white on the tail-feathers of the 

 Siberian bird when compared with European examples. 



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