PLATE 



XXXYII. 



FAMILY GLAREOLI DM. 



HE Pratincoles are an isolated group of birds, allied on the one side to Plovers and on the 

 other to Swallows. 



GENUS GLAREOLA (Brisson). 



f jlHESE birds are confined in their range to the continents of the Eastern Hemisphere. 



GLAREOLA GRALLARIA (Temm.) 



A USTRALIAN PEA T1NC0LE. Genus : Glareola. 



THE Australian Pratincole is remarkable among members of its own family for the extraordinary 

 length of its primaries and tarsi, which, with the small size of the head and the graceful 

 contour of the body, combines to make it the most elegant of all the species. 



In the economy of nature, the Pratincole is destined to aid in keeping within due bounds 

 the great insect world, and for that purpose it seeks its food both on the wing and on foot. Its 

 flight is very rapid, and, as it skims the earth closely, it is almost impossible to glean any knowledge 

 of its habits before it has passed out of sight. 



Dr. E. P. Ramsay writes of this bird : — " The home of the Australian Pratincole is in the 

 interior of New South Wales, and the northern jiortion of the province of South Australia. It is 

 also found occasionally during the wet seasons in the neighbourhood of Cape York and Port Denison. 

 In New South Wales, I have received specimens from the Lachlan and Darling Rivers, and Mr 

 James Ramsay has noticed it in the Emdarie, in the Bourke District. Mr. E. G. Vickery has 

 kindly permitted me to describe an egg from his collection, taken near Wilcannia, on the Darling 

 River, in September, 1880. He informs me that the parent bird was seen to fly from the eggs 

 and, before they were taken, to return again and sit on the nest ; so I think there can be little doubt 

 their authenticity. The eggs were three in number. The ground color is of a creamy-white, dull 

 light stone-brown, or light buff, well covered with irregularly-shaped blotches, dots and spots, and 

 freckles of dull umber and sienna-brown, with a few dots and dashes almost black, and obsolete spots 

 here and there of slaty-grey. Length, l-3in. x lin. ; in shape they are slightly oval, slightly swollen 

 at the thicker end, and not pointed. An egg of this species in the collection of Mr. K. H. 

 Bennett measures 1.24in. x 95in ; none differ materially from Mr. Vickery's specimens. Mr. Bennett 

 informs me that they select a bare spot on the ground where the earth or sand assimilates to the 

 color and markings of the eggs. They breed during October." — E. P. Ramsay, F.L.S., P.L.S. of 

 N.S.W. ; Vol. VII., 1882, page 406. 



The male has the head, all upper surfaces, wings and breast, light rufous, fading nearly 

 white on the throat ; lores, dark brown ; abdomen, chestnut ; primaries and under- wing surface, black ; 

 shaft of the outer primary, white for three-fourths of its length from the base ; thighs, upper and 

 under tail coverts, white ; central tail feathers, black, margined on the tips with brown, at their 

 inner webs, with white ; lateral tail-feathers, white, with an oval spot near the tip of the inner web ; 

 bill, red at base, black at tip ; legs and feet brown. 



