GLAREOLA PRATINCOLA. 
Common Pratincole. 
Hirundo pratincola, Linn. 85 ^ 81 . Nat., tom. i. p. 345. 
Glareola aiistriaca, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. pp. 695, 696. 
torquata, Meyer, Taschenb. Deutschl. Vog., tom. ii. p. 404. 
pratincola, Leach, Trans. Linn. Soc., vol. xiii. p. 131, pi. 12. 
The Glareola pratincola is the type of one of those isolated forms which Imve sadly puzzled systematic 
ornithologists as to the place they should occupy in their arrangements of birds. By many of the earlier 
writers it was classed with the Swallows ; some of the more recent ones have noticed its Tern-like actions ; 
w'hile by most modern systematists it is arranged with the Grallatores and in close alliance with the Plovers. 
The celebrated Linnaeus, following Aldrovandus and Willughby, included it in the genus Hirundo, 
in the 12th and last edition of his ‘ Systema Naturae ’ (of 1766) ; but at that time Linne had not seen 
a Pratincole, a fact of which I have become aware from a letter I possess in his own handwriting, dated 
1774 (eight years later), addressed to the Reverend John White, a brother of the well-known Gilbert 
White, of Selborne, in which, after rendering eternal thanks for, and commenting upon the Interesting 
objects he had just received from him, he says ; — “ Pratincolam antea non vidi ; ad Grallas spectat, et 
proprli generis : ” i. e. “ Pratincola I had not seen before ; it is evidently allied to the Grallse, and forms a 
distinct genus.” This must have been the source of information to which Latham refers in his General 
History, vol. ix. p. 361, where he says : — “ The late Mr. White informed me that, finding Linnaeus had placed 
this bird with the Sw'allows, he sent one to him, which had been shot on the shore of Gibraltar, in May 1770 ; 
on the sight of which the great naturalist concurred in opinion that it belonged to the Waders, and not 
to the Passerine Order.” I must fairly admit that at one time I was inclined to the Hlrundine theory, 
and regarded the bird as a terrestrial Swallow rather than, as it appears to be, an aerial Plover ; and this 
notion prevailed with me until a very recent period, when (after soliciting various friends visiting North 
Africa, Spain, and India to send me young Pratincoles one or two days old, an examination of which 
I knew would confirm or refute my ideas on the subject) I was so fortunate as to obtain, through the 
kindness of Lord Lilford, two chicks of the required age in spirits, accompanied by a note informing me 
that the young birds run over the ground immediately after exclusion from the egg, and are not blind, 
naked, and helpless, like newly hatched Swallows, — facts which leave no doubt on my mind that the 
Pratincole should not be associated with those birds. 
As Linnaeus remarked, the bird does belong to a distinct genus, of which since his time several other 
members have been discovered, the whole now amounting to nine or ten in number, all inhabitants of the 
Old World, over nearly the whole of which one or other of them are distributed. In Europe there are 
two — Glareola pratincola and G. melanoptera ; in Africa, besides these, there are at least three others : 
in India four or five, and in Australia two, one of which is perha|)s not found elsewhere. 
In England the Pratincole has been killed many times and at various seasons of the year ; it has also 
been taken at least once in Ireland ; but, as yet, Scotland has either proved to he too far north, or the birds 
whieh would have passed over England to that country have met with the usual ill fortune of accidental 
visitors. It is stated, however, that Bullock obtained an example in the Isle of Unst, one of the Shetland 
group, which, at the dispersion of his collection in 1819, was sold for eight guineas, and transferred 
to the British Museum. 
According to' Temminck, the Pratincole frequents the borders of lakes, rivers, and inland seas, parti- 
cularly such as form extensive marshes covered with aquatic herbage. In Hungary, it abounds on the marshy 
confines of the lakes Neusidel and Balaton, where he saw it in flocks of hundreds together. It is likewise 
met with in some parts of Germany, France, and Spain, and also in Switzerland, Italy, Piedmont, and Savoy ; 
but in these latter countries it must be regarded as a bird of passage or occasional visitant. Temminck 
also states that it breeds in Sardinia, and is very abundant in Dalmatia, on the borders of the lake Boccagnaro 
during its spring migration. It has been observed in Persia and in considerable flocks in the neighbourhood 
of the Caucasus ; and I possess examples from Western India. It is also said to resort to Tartary, hut 
not to go further north than latitude 53° ; and it will be seen from the following notes that it frequents 
Palestine &c. Mr. Osbert Salvin found the Pratincole frequenting the salt lakes and freshwater marshes of 
the tableland of the interior of the Eastern Atlas, and says : — “ Its fearless manner and familiar habits cause 
it to rank high among the interesting birds of the country. When in proximity to their breeding-places, 
the whole flock comes wheeling and screaming round, while some dart passionately down to within a few 
feet of the intruder’s head, retiring again to make another descent. When the first transports of excitement 
