421 



commence another attack, and so on, until night sets in and the birds happen to lose the swarm 

 or the locusts are all devoured. I should not forget to mention that the beak of these birds is 

 exactly of such a shape and such dimensions that when they seize the locust the snap cuts off 

 the four wings, and a passer-by sees a continual shower of locusts' wings falling to the ground. 

 At another time, when I was stationed at Fort Peddie, and the country was suffering from the 

 effects of a long drought and was overrun with unusual quantities of ants and grasshoppers, we 

 were visited by thousands of these birds, which remained many days devouring these pests. 

 Though the locust-birds are excellent eating, no one ever thinks of destroying them, and they 

 were so fearless that, though I often rode or ran amongst them .to test their tameness, only a few 

 in my immediate vicinity would rise, the rest continuing to feed ; but every ten minutes or so 

 the whole mass would rise of their own accord and fly, first a few yards to the right, and then to 

 the left, in a slanting direction, presenting alternately a black and white wave of birds some 

 miles in length, a sight never to be forgotten by the spectator." 



I do not possess the eggs of this Pratincole, which are said to resemble closely those of 

 G. pratincole/,. 



The specimen figured in the foreground, to the right, on the same Plate with Glareola 

 pratincola, is a bird of the year, obtained in Turkey, and now in my collection, it being also the 

 specimen described. In the background, to the right, I have figured a bird with uplifted wings, 

 to show the black axillaries. The old bird is not figured, as, excepting for its black axillaries 

 and wing-coverts, it so nearly resembles the adult of G. pratincola. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens: — 



E Mus. E. E. Dresser. 



a, J juv. Haskeuy, Turkey, October 19th, 1871 (T. Robson). b,juv. Scutari, Turkey, September 13th, 1868 

 (T. Robson). c, 8 ad. Djeddah, Red Sea (S. Stafford Allen), d, 6 . Cape of Good Hope (E. L. Layard). 



E Mus. Howard Saunders. 

 a, 8 . South Russia (H. F. Moschler) . 



iSM 



