46 
BRITISH BIRDS. 
THE PRATINCOLE, 
AUSTRIAN PRATINCOLE. 
(Hirundo Pratincola, Lin . — La Perdrix de Mer, Buff.) 
Bill short, strong, strait, hooked at the end ; gape 
wide, nostrils near the base, linear, oblique ; legs long 
and slender ; toes connected by a membrane at the 
base; tail forked, consisting of twelve feathers. La- 
tham notices only three species and four varieties of 
this genus of birds. 
The Pratincole has not till lately been noticed as a 
British bird. Montagu says, one of them was shot 
near Liverpool, on the 18th May, 1804, and was 
taken to Mr Bullock* before it was cold, which speci- 
men is now in the collection of Lord Stanley. It was 
shot in the act of taking beetles on the wing, the re- 
mains of which were found in its stomach. Mr Mon- 
* Mr Bullock also met with one of these birds in the summer of 
1812, in Unst, one of the Shetland isles. 
