GLAREOLA LACTEA, Te mm.
Cinereous Pratincole.
Glareola lactea, Temm. Man. d’O rn., 2nd. edit. tom. ii. p. 503,— Id . PI. Col. 399.—Blyth, Cat. o f Birds in Mus.
Asiat. Soc. Calcutta, p. 259.—G. R. Gray, Gen. o f Birds, vol. iii. p. 538, Glareola, sp. 6.—Jerd.
Birds of India, vol. ii. p a rt ii. p. 632.—Gray, L is t o f Spec, o f Birds in Coll. Brit. Mus., part. iii.
Gallinee, &c., p. 62.
orientalis, Jerd . in Madras Journ. of L it. and Sci., vol. xii. p. 215.
Galachrysia lactea, Bonap. Compt. Rend, de l’Acad. Sci., tom. xliii. séance du 2 ao û t 1856.
Cinereous Pratincole, Lath., Gen. Hist., vol. ix. p. 365.
Cream-coloured Pratincole, Griff. Anim. Kingd., vol. viii. p. 543, pi. 49.
Utteran o f the Scindians.
T his is one of the smallest species of a very isolated group of birds peculiar to the Old World, the by no
means numerous members o f which are very widely distributed. Europe is tenanted by two, India by three,
Australia by two, and Africa by about the same number. In their habits and economy they are all very
Swallow-like, as they also are in some parts of their structure. They hawk for insects in the air, but, unlike
the Swallows, run nimbly over the ground ; on the ground, too, they deposit their four speckled eggs, a
circumstance which closely allies them to the Grallatores; and it is doubtless for this reason that the majority
o f naturalists place them in that order.
The Glareola lactea, besides being one o f the smallest species o f the genus, is also one of the most
aerial of them ; for it spends much o f its time ip the air, hunting for its insect food over streams and marshy
places, for which its structure is well adapted, its wings being ample, its neck short, its feet diminutive.
I t appears to be distributed over, and stationary in, all parts of In d ia ; that country must therefore be
regarded as its headquarters. Mr. Jerdon and other writers give some details respecting its breeding, but
do not say if the young are capable of running immediately after they are excluded from the egg, or if they
are helpless, like the young of Insessorial b ird s ; a knowledge of this particular is very desirable, as it would
tend to show the true position o f the species in our systems.
This bird is figured in the drawings o f the late Hon. F. J . Shore, from a specimen killed by him at
Luckurghat, with the following n o te:—
“ This bird, which is called Kunyiu by the boatmen a t this place, is not seen during the rain s ; its
manners and appearance are that of a Swallow, but its legs are like those o f a Sandpiper. I saw some
hundreds skimming over the Ganges, but only shot one. In February 1829 I observed numbers on the
river between Futtighur and Allahabad.”
The following is Mr. Jerdon’s account, which I take the liberty of transcribing:—
“ The small Swallow-Plover occurs throughout the greater part of the country, and is very abundant in
some localities, especially near large rivers. Now and then large parties are seen hawking over the plains
and fields ; but it prefers hunting up and down the banks of rivers, over sandy churrs, and by large tanks.
In localities where they abound, vast parties may be seen every evening after sunset taking a long flight in a
certain direction, and capturing insects as they fly. They live entirely on insects, which they capture in the
air, in many cases Coleoptera. Several which I examined had partaken only o f a species of Cicindela.
“ I found them breeding a t Thyetmyo, in Upper Burmah, with the young ju st flown, in May; and Mr.
Brooks, Civil Engineer, of Mirzapore, informs me that he found their nests in a large sandy churr near that
place. The parents endeavoured to entice him away from their nests, ju st like a Plover. The eggs are
pale stone-colour, with numerous small reddish-brown and a few dull purplish spots.”
Upper surface pale brownish g rey ; upper tail-coverts white; tail white, crossed with dark brown for
about one inch on the central feathers, diminishing to a quarter of an inch on the outer ones, and tipped
with white; primaries brown, the first four with white shafts, and the inner web of the last four or five
white, with brown tips ; spurious wing dark brown; chin, throat, and breast pale brownish g rey ; chest
rich buff; abdomen and under tail-coverts white; axillaries and under wing-coverts brown ; bill black; gape
red ; feathered orbits white ; irides dark brown ; legs dusky green.
The young are very similar to the adults, except that the lower part of the neck is streaked and spotted
with dark brown.
The Plate represents an adult of the natural size, and a young bird of the year, considerably reduced.