EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 
GRALLATORES. 
CIIARADR1ID/E. 
PRATINCOLE. 
GlAREOLA TORQUATA. 
PLATE LXXV. 
The Pratincole is so rare that but little is known 
with regard to its habits during the breeding-season ; 
some skins of the bird having been presented to the 
Zoological Society, Mr. Yarrell states that in making en¬ 
quiry of the donor with regard to them, he learned that 
the habits of this bird correspond closely with those of 
our plovers—frequenting sandy plains, flying and run¬ 
ning with great rapidity, forming a slight nest in any 
depression of the dry soil, and laying four eggs. 
The eggs of the Pratincole which I have seen are very 
different, and therefore easily known from those of any 
other species; like the bird, they are generically distinct. 
In shape and colour they bear a much closer resemblance 
to eggs of the black tern than to those of any other 
British bird; they are not at all like the pointed eggs of 
the true waders, which are made to fit four in the same 
