PEAT1NC0LA DACOTm 



(CAN ART AN CHAT.) 



Pratincola dacotice, Meade- Waldo, Ibis, 1889, p. -504. 



Figura unica. 

 Meade- Waldo, Ibis, 1889, pi. xv. 



$ ad. supra brunneo-niger, fusco limbatus : cauda brunnea, rectricibus externis albo limbatis : loris et capitis 

 lateribus nigris, linea supraoculari et postoculari alba : gula et thorace albis : pectoris cinctura pallide 

 eastanea, abdomine albido : hypocbondriis et crisso albis, secundariis majoribus interioribus albis, 

 reliquis albo marginatis : rostro et pedibus nigris. 



? ad. supra brunnea: gula, tborace et abdomine albidis, cinctura eastanea pectoris paesne obsoleta, aliter 

 mari similis. 



Adult Male (Fuerteventura) . Crown and nape blackish brown, with indistinct lighter edges to the feathers ; 

 rest of the upper parts similarly coloured, but with broader light margins to the feathers ; lores and 

 sides of the head black; a white line extending from the base of the bill over and behind the eye; tail 

 brown, the outer rectrices with whitish margins ; innermost secondaries white, the remainder mai'gined 

 with white ; chin, throat, and underparts white, with a pale rusty red patch on the breast : bill and legs 

 blackish; iris brown. Total length about 4"9 inches, culmen 0"62, wing 2 - 5, tail 2'3, tarsus 09. 



Adult Female (Fuerteventura). Differs from the male in being paler and duller in coloration, the crown 

 having the light edges to the feathers broader, and the rufous patch on the breast is nearly obsolete. 



First described in 1889 from Fuerteventura (one of the Canary Islands), the present species of 

 Chat is as yet not known to occur anywhere else, though, as pointed out by Canon Tristram, 

 the opposite coast of Africa is still unexplored, and it is possible that further research may show 

 that it is also to be met with there. 



Mr. Meade-Waldo, the discoverer of this species, obtained ten specimens on Fuerteventura, 

 and writes (Ibis, 1889, p. 504) as follows : — " The day that I landed I saw two pairs of the 

 Pratincola, and watched carefully for it all the time I was in the island. I came to the 

 conclusion that it is thinly distributed from the mountains to the sea-beach, and that it lives 

 only where there is some vegetation. Perhaps its favourite haunts are the small barrancos on 

 the north slope of the mountains ; but I procured two pairs on the sea-beach, and the cock bird 

 of a pair, which were feeding young ones, on a lava-stream. It is a singularly quiet little bird, 

 hardly putting itself out when its young ones are being handled, flying tamely from bush-top to 

 bush-top, and occasionally uttering a low chut, chut. I found two nests, each containing two 

 large young. The nests were placed on the ground under stones or, rather, in one instance, 



