ORIENTAL PRATINCOLE. 
Distribution. Siberia (breeding), southward to Australia (except the South-west). 
Adult male. General colour of the upper-parts olive-brown, somewhat darker on the 
head, and a slight shade of rufous on the hind-neck ; bastard- wing, primary- 
coverts, primary- and secondary-quills dark brown ; upper tail-coverts pure 
white ; tail also white with dark brown tips to the feathers ; loral space black, 
which colour is continued in a narrow line below the eye on to the sides of the 
throat and joining on the fore-neck, encircling the buff colour on the throat : 
these black feathers have white bases ; the patch on the side of the breast olive- 
brown like the back ; middle of fore-neck and breast rufous becoming paler on the 
flanks ; abdomen and under tail-coverts pure white ; axillaries and inner under 
wing-coverts chestnut, marginal and greater under wing-coverts black, more or 
less tipped with white , bill black, basal half of tomium and corner of mouth 
red ; iris dark brown ; tarsi and feet blackish-brown. Total length 227 mm ; 
culmen 18, wing 191, tail 82, tarsus 34. 
Adult female. Sinnlar to the adult male, but differs by the absence of the black lores, 
which are more or less rufous. 
Immature male {of the year). Differs from the adult only in being , paler on the throat 
(which is streaked) and breast, and by the absence of the white bases to the 
feathers which encircle the buff throat-patch. 
Immature female. Differs from the immature male in being almost white on the throat, 
and the entire absence of rufous on the fore-neck. 
Young. Differs from the adult chiefly in having white margins to the feathers on the 
upper-surface ; the upper-breast is brown, with lighter margins to the feathers, 
and the throat has white feathers with narrow brown centres. As the bird gets 
older, the margins to the feathers of the upper-surface become narrower, 
the feathers approaching those of the fully adult in colour, and the black rim 
surrounding the throat becomes pronounced. 
Nest. A depression in the soil. 
Eggs. Clutch, two ; ground-colour pale stone, marked all over with bold markings of 
dark purplish-black, and underlying ones of smoky -grey ; axis 31 mm., 
diameter 24. 
Breeding-season. April ; May. 
Mr. J. P. Rogers, writing from the North-west of Australia, says : “ To-day, 
10th February, 1909, I rode over a big plain on which a lot of these birds 
were feeding ; about a dozen of them followed me and caught the grasshoppers 
that were disturbed by my horse ; the insects were aU caught and eaten on 
the wing. These birds usually choose a piece of bare ground to alight on 
and stand motionless on it. I have never seen them feeding on the ground ; 
apparently these birds always catch their food when flying. They are very 
late feeders, as I have seen them hawking for grasshoppers when it was too 
dark to shoot and the birds themselves could barely be distinguished. They 
arrived near Wyndham in January and remained till April, when they all 
left. On 20th March, 1911, the only one seen was collected on a grassy flat.” 
Mr. Tom Carter noted that these birds were rarely observed in the 
Mid-west, and then only when very stormy or unsettled weather was about. 
The natives call these birds “Rain brother.” 
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