THE BIRDS OF MESOPOTAMIA. • 
665 
Five specimens examined: Amara, 17-12-17 ; juv. Basra, 19-8-17 
(P. A. B.) ; Amara, 2-12-17, juv. Shaiba, 12-8-18. (P. Z. C. and R. E. C.) ; Basra, 
8-9-19 (L. Home). 
These appear to me to be quite typical, wings 160-166 mm. 
244. Common Pratincole. Glareola pratincola. 
Glareola 'pratincola pratincola {Sysi. Ed. xii, p. 345, 1766 — 
Austria). 
The Pratincole is a summer visitor and locally abundant. It arrives in the 
last days of March and by the end of the first week in April it is numerous in the 
oireas in which it inter ds to breed. 
There are many colonies dotted about in our area of which a few may be men- 
tioned ; it breeds at Feluja ; on the dicing edges of Lake Akkarkuf ; near 
Museyib ; at Chaldari, near Baghdad ; Samarra ; Suweikiyeh marsh ; Abu Aran ; 
near Fao ; and Ahwaz. The drying edges of marshes and inundations are favour- 
ite sites for colonies, the eggs being deposited in some depression such as a hoof 
mark in the dry hard mud ; at Samarra they were nesting on shingle on the 
edge of the river and at Ahwaz on sandy islands in the Karun below the rapids. 
At Chaldari and Sera, Cheesman found colonies on hard bare sun-baked desert 
some miles from the river. 
Fiesh eggs may be obtained at the end of April. Few birds are more demon- 
strative when they have young about than this species ; Cheesman says that on 
invading a colony, there were birds on the ground in all directions with drooping 
flapping wings, feigning disablement ; while Pitman, who wntnessed the same 
performance, notes that in some lights the effect was very curious and that the 
display to draw off attention gave the appearance of a snake coiling about or 
a big lizard moving along ! ! 
Buxton noted that birds flying over a recently dried marsh at Amara were 
nearly out of gunshot but two birds then obtained had their mouths full of small 
“ water-boatmen ” {Corixidee and N otonectidee) which must have been flying 
at that altitude in bright sunshine. Others, which Cheesman examined, con- 
tained Coleoptera and Locust remains. Stoneham says they may be seen feeding 
on Termite-n after rain. 
The Pratincole probably departs in August, the latest record is September 3rd. 
Nine skins examined: g, Amara, 15-5-18; g, $,7-4-18 (P. A. B.) • 
g $, Ahwaz, 30-4-17 ; g $, Sera, 2-5-19; $, Baghdad, 12-5-19 (P Z c’ 
and R. E. C.) ; Feluja, 15-4-17, (two) (C. R. P.). ‘ ‘ 
These appear to me to be quite typical. 
245. BIack=wing:ed Pratincole. Glareola nordmanni. 
Glareola nordmanni, Fischer. (Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Moscow xv 1842 
p. 314 — S. Russia). ’ ’ ’ 
There is little to record about this species. Pitman shot two at Feluja on 
April loth and saw them there and between there and Baghdad in May, where 
they were evidently breeding, as also at Hindia barrage. At the end of Julv 
and beginning of August he met with some on L. Akkarkuf. They were nowhere 
plentiful and were apparently breeding in the same colonies as the common 
species. The two birds obtained had their crops crammed with half grown 
locusts. ® 
246. Red-necked Phalarope. Phalaropus lobatus. 
Phalaropm lobatus (L.). (Syst. Nat. Ed., x, p. 148, 1758— Hudson Bay) 
(=hyperboreus, auct.). ^ 
Zarudny gives this Phalarope as a passage migrant and winter visitor. It may 
occur, though I never saw it, in the sea off Fao in winter, and might be found on 
passage in the marshes of our area. 
