ALECTORIDES. GLAREOLA. 321 
Orper X. ALECTORS. ALECTORIDES, 
Temm. 
CHARACTERS OF THE ORDER. 
Bill strong and hard ; as long as or longer than the head ; 
upper mandible convex, and often hooked at the point. Feet 
having the tarsus long and slender; with three toes before 
and one behind, which is articulated upon the tarsus above 
the others. 
This recent order has been formed by 'TEmMMINCK to em- 
brace certain genera, which, in the systematic arrangement 
he has given, could not properly be included in any other ; 
and, for want of such arrangement, had hitherto held no 
fixed station, but had been capriciously removed from one 
order or division to another, and some of them classed, not 
from true fundamental distinction, but from very distant ex- 
terior resemblance. He has cleft the order into two divisions, 
one (“ les Campestres”) contaiming the genera that dwell in 
deserts and similar situations, and live principally on reptiles ; 
the other (‘ les Riverains”) inhabiting the banks of rivers and 
lakes, and subsisting on insects, worms, and herbage. In the 
form of the bill, the birds of this order are allied to that of 
Gailing ; and they also approach towards the order Cursores, 
through the genus Cursorius (Swiftfcot) ; and to that of 
Grallatores, through the genus Palamedea. In Europe we 
possess but one species of the genus Glareola, belonging to 
this order. 
Genus XLII]. PRATINCOLE. GLAREOLA, Briss. 
GENERIC CHARACTERS. 
Bill short, hard, convex, curved for upwards of half its 
length, and compressed towards the point. Nostrils basal, 
lateral, oblong, and obliquely cleft. Legs feathered nearly 
. x 
