The young, iii their first your, have all the upper surface light reddish brown ; a spot of 

 brown in the centre of the lnvast ; abdominal band, pale chestnut. 



Habitats: Derby (N.W.A.), Port Darwin, Port Essington, Cape York, Wide Bay District, 

 Richmond and Clarence River Districts, New South Wales, Interior. 



GLAREOLA ORIENT A LIS (Leach). 



ORIENTAL PRATINCOLE. Genus: Glareola. 



"T III I IS Glareola," says Allan Hume, in "Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds," pp. 568, "is gregarious, 

 J- parties of twenty or thirty choosing a locality and remaining there. Sandy and hot places are 

 chosen in preference. During April and May I several times, in company with friends, carefully 

 quartered several acres of ground, but failed to find anything. When their breeding haunts are invaded, 

 many of the birds (females, I suspect), squat on the ground, expand their wings, stretch out their necks, 

 ami try to look as fierce as possible. There is no manner of doubt, I think, that these birds breed 

 abundantly in the Pegu plains. Next year I hope to be more successful. I cannot help suspecting 

 (knowing as 1 do from dissection that the birds were breeding in April and May) that the female covers 

 the eggs with a sprinkling of sand or dry decayed vegetable matter when she is disturbed. The curious 

 habit of squatting for a few moments with expanded wings requires investigation." 



As Australian research has thrown no light upon the habits and economy of this bird, except 

 what goes to prove that it is an inhabitant of India and the intervening islands, and therefore only a 

 visitor to our continent, we may infer that what is true of its habits in its own country may be true 

 of it here. 



The Oriental differs from the Australian Pratincole in the shorter dimensions of the primaries, 

 and in its more subdued plumage. 



All the upper surfaces, olivaceous brown ; primaries, brownish black ; secondaries, black 

 glossed with green ; tail-coverts and tail, white at base, black at tip ; throat, warm white, mottled with 

 a broken ring of black ; chest, greyish brown ; under surfaces, pale buff, fading into white on the tail- 

 coverts ; underwing surfaces, deep ferruginous red ; bill, black ; gape, yellow ; feet, blackish-brown. 



Habitats : Cape York, Rockingham Bay, Wide Bay District, New South Wales. 



