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The Emu 
Official Organ of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists* Union 
Birds of a Feather. 
Vol. XXIV.] 1st OCTOBER, 1924. [Part 2 
A Contribution on the Life-story of 
the Australian Pratincole 
By Dr. W. MacGILLIVRAY, C.F.A.O.U., Sometime 
President, R.A.O.U., Broken Hill. 
My first recollection of the Australian Pratincole (Stiltia 
Isabella ) was in the early seventies, when as a small boy I 
lived on a cattle station on a tributary of the Flinders River, in 
North Queensland. The Pratincole was known to me as the 
Rain-bird, from a habit it had of Hying backwards and forwards 
over the plains on long Swallow-like wings, skimming the ground 
or rising high in the air, and calling persistently during the time 
of the thunder-storms that ushered in the monsoonal rains of 
the summer months. 
In November, 1877, T was travelling on horseback from Rich¬ 
mond Downs to Hughenden, accompanied by a black boy. As 
we crossed an ironstone-gravel ridge on a plain, our attention 
was attracted by one of these birds running off the ridge, flutter¬ 
ing, stumbling, and trying her best to induce us to follow her. 
We searched the ridge for a nest, without success, then we rode 
slowly away, watching the bird over our shoulder till we noted 
the spot to which she returned by short runs, with frequent 
halts, till she finally arranged her eggs and sat upon them. 
Keeping our eyes on the spot, we went back, and found the pair 
of eggs on the ground, amongst the stones which they, being a 
darkly coloured set, resembled. 
In 1898, a friend returning from Morden Station, in Western 
New South Wales, to the Western District of Victoria, where I 
was then living, brought me a pair of unblown eggs of this 
species. These were of the sandy-colored variety, and had been 
taken during the last week in November. My brother sent me, 
from the Gulf District in Queensland, two pairs of eggs that 
were taken in the same year. 
