PRATINCOLE. 361 



grey brown ; chin and throat white, surrounded with a black line, 

 which begins at the back part of the eye, and bounds the white all 

 round ; the under parts of the body rufous grey, paler towards the 

 vent; upper tail coverts the same; quills and tail dusky ; the last 

 much forked in shape, the feathers tipped with grey on the inner 

 webs, the outer web of the exterior white; legs, and bare space above 

 the joint, blood-red, the middle toe remarkably long. 



This bird inhabits Germany, particularly the borders of the 

 Rhine, near Strasburgh, living on worms, and aquatic insects; is 

 sometimes seen in France, especially about Lorraine, but most 

 numerous in the deserts towards the Caspian Sea, frequenting the 

 dry plains in great flocks ; likewise common throughout the whole 

 deserts of the Independent Tartars, as far as the River Kamysch- 

 losska and Irtish, but not farther in Siberia : the plains which it 

 affects being there at an end; and in general it is not observed beyond 

 53 degrees to the north. 



The late Mr. White informed me, that finding Linnaeus had 

 placed this bird with the Swallows, he sent one to him, which was 

 shot on the shore of Gibraltar, in May 1770; on the sight of which 

 this great naturalist concurred in opinion, that it belonged to the 

 Waders, and not to the Passerine Order. Kramer has also properly 

 discriminated this bird, and given a good figure of it, though it did 

 not appear that Linnaeus availed himself of the above information. 

 According to Kramer, the Pratincole is found common on the heathy 

 meadows in some parts of Austria, more especially about the Lake 

 Czirnichew, and is there called Brachvogel. It is, also, not unfre- 

 quent in Spain, and chiefly found either in moist meadows, or 

 ploughed lands ; and it appears there first in spring, and stays 

 through the summer. Instances of this bird having been met with 

 in England are very rare : some years since, the game-keeper of a 

 gentleman, in Kent, informed me, of having shot a kind of Swift, 

 with a forked tail, and a bent, stout bill ; but as I did not see the 

 bird, I could only conjecture that it might possibly have been a 



VOL. IX. A A A 



