730 
Birds of Celebes: Glareolidae. 
middle toe; the tail of this latter species is deeply forked, not square, and in 
coloration it wants the deep chestnut patch on the abdomen and sides. 
Glareola isabella breeds in Australia and seems only to be a migrant to the 
East Indies during the cool season in the south. Judging from the fact that 
we can find notice of only four collectors who have obtained it in Celebes ■ — 
Meyer, Weber, the Sarasins, and our native hunters — its visitations would 
appear to be irregular. In 1892 what might almost be termed an irruption 
seems to have taken place, and in August — September 48 specimens, adults and 
young, were sent by our native hunters to the Dresden Museum chiefly from 
the neighbourhood of Lake Tondano. In the two following years not a single 
example was obtained by the Drs. Saras in, though very few Celebesian species 
escaped these zealous naturalists. Like the Sand-grouse in Western Europe, 
with which the Pratincole has several points of semblance, to wit the greatly 
lengthened remiges, the general colour, the dark patch on the abdomen (which 
may have to do with their inhabiting similar barren tracts if there is no real 
affinity between them), the Pratincole seems to appear as a mysterious wanderer 
in Celebes, in some years occurring in great numbers, in others, perhaps, not 
at all. But this remains to be proved. In Billiton, Dr. Vorderman (7) says, 
it occurs in abundance during the East Monsoon (April— October) on the sands 
at ebb-tide. 
An admirable account of the habits of the Long-legged Pratincole, of which 
few observers have obtained more than glimpses, is given by Mr. H. K. Bennett 
from the interior of New South Wales (a 9): “This somewhat singular bird is 
one of the few migratory species that visit this part of the colony and remain 
during the intense heat of summer. As a rule it arrives towards the end of 
September and departs about the end of February. During that interval it 
breeds, and the places chosen for this purpose, and in fact its habitat during 
its stay are the bare patches of ground, entirely destitute of vegetation, so freqnent 
on the plains here. Some of these bare patches are of considerable extent, and 
the surface of the ground is broken up into countless small pieces from the 
size of a pea to that of a walnut ... It is on these loose patches that the 
Glareola deposits its eggs, 2 in number . . . Usually it is very shy, but during 
the period of incubation it loses this shyness and both parent birds will allow 
themselves to be approached quite closely and seem utterly regardless of danger 
in their anxiety to protect their eggs or young. In fact I have seen the female 
bird so loath to quit the eggs that it was only when I touched her with my 
hand, that she would quit the nest, pecking savagely at my hand several times 
before she did so; the male bird in the mean time lying flat on the ground, 
with outstretched wings, a few feet off, uttering the most plaintive cries”. 
“The young in the earlier stages are exceedingly helpless, and although the 
colour of their down so closely resembles that of the loose pieces of earth amongst 
which they are hatched that when motionless they are un distinguishable , still 
