262 GLAEEOLA. 



Variations. The alleged intermediate forms between this species and G. pratineola are very doubtful. 



Synonymy. 



Literature. 



Glareola melanoptera, Nordmann, Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Mosc. xv. pt. ii. p. 314 (1842). 

 Glareola nordmarmi, Fischer, Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Mosc. xv. pt. ii. p. 314 (1842). 

 Pratineola pallasi, Bruch, fide Degland, Orn. Eur. ii. p. 112 (1843). 

 Glareola pallasii, Bruch, fide Schlegel, Rev. Crit. p. lxxxi (1814). 



Plates. — Gould, Birds of Asia, vii. pi. 63 ; Ibis, 1868, pi. viii. 



Habits. — Dresser, Birds of Europe, vii. p. 419. 



Eggs. — Thienemann, Abbild. Vogeleiern, pi. lviii. fig. 2. 



Specific 

 characters. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



Nearest 

 ally. 



Nordmann's Pratincole may always be distinguished by its black axillaries and deeply 

 forked tail. These characters are not quite constant at all ages, but even in young in first 

 plumage black is the prevailing colour of the axillaries, and the fork of the tail is never less 

 than an inch. 



Nordmann's Pratincole breeds in the Kirghiz Steppes from the plains of the Don, 

 where it was first discovered by Nordmann, as far north as Omsk, where I examined 

 examples in the museum of Professor Slowzoff, and as far east as Ala-kul, on the confines 

 of Mongolia, where its range was found by Finsch to inosculate with that of the Common 

 Pratincole. To all these regions it is only a summer visitor ; and as it is not known to 

 have occurred in Afghanistan or India, and only passes through Persia, Trans-Caucasia, 

 Asia Minor, and Turkey on migration, it is probable that its winter-quarters are confined 

 to Africa. Heuglin says that it passes through Egypt and Nubia on migration, whence it 

 spreads over the whole of South Africa in winter. To the west it has been recorded from 

 Prince's Island (Dohrn, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1S66, p. 330) and the Gaboon ; in the south it is 

 seen in large flocks in Damara-Land, the Cape Colony, Natal, and the Transvaal ; and in 

 the east it is recorded from the Zambesi (Kirk, Ibis, 1864, p. 332). Layard quotes 

 Mrs. Barber as an authority for the breeding of this bird in South Africa ; but the 

 evidence is not at all satisfactory, the " Locust-bird " referred to being, in all probability, 

 the Wattled Starling (Dilop/ius carunculatus). 



Nordmann's Pratincole is so nearly allied to the Common Pratincole that it can 

 scarcely be regarded as more than a steppe-form of its salt-marsh ally. In young in first 

 plumage the axillaries are black margined with chestnut, so that we may fairly assume that 

 the ancestors of Nordmann's Pratincole bore a close resemblance to the Common Pratincole, 

 which appears to be the least changed descendant of the ancestral Pratincoles. 



