are over, they all alight one by one on the ground. Some stand quite still, watching with inquiring gaze ; while
others stretch themselves out, first expanding one wing, then the other, and, sitting down, extend both legs.
In this position they remain some seconds, as if dead, when suddenly springing up they make another circuit
overhead, and the whole flock passes quietly away. The Pratincole makes no nest, but deposits its three
eggs in a slight depression o f the bare sand. They are usually placed with their axes parallel. We
several times visited places where numbers o f these birds were breeding, yet we never succeeded in finding
a young one, though many o f the eggs were on the point of being hatched. This fact favours the idea that
on leaving the egg the young are capable o f running like those o f other Grallee. The Pratincoles often
attracted my attention by their incessant cries and furious attacks, as if resenting my intrusion on their
domain.”
Col. Drummond-Hay informs me that he frequently observed the Pratincole skimming and hovering over
the marshy plains about thirteen miles from Tangier, where it breeds ; but never saw the bird in any other
part of Eastern Morocco. To this gentleman I am also indebted for the following note, which he obligingly
procured for me from M. François Favier, a French naturalist, resident in Tangier :__
“ Here the Pratincole usually deposits its eggs during the month o f May, in the small depressions made
by the feet of a n im a is ,* meadows which are overflowed in winter. A second laying seems to take place in
July, as recently hatched young birds are found in Ju n e and August.”
The egg figured by Mr. Hewitson is o f an olivaceous stone-colonr, spotted with dark brown ; but he says
that the ground-colour is frequently much darker than in the one represented in his work.
Lieut. Sperling says:— “ Whilst boar-shooting on the Plain o f Sharon, I shot some Pratincoles.- There
were a great many of them hawking for insects over the fields, flying a t a height of about twenty feet, and
continually uttering a sound between a low scream and a whistle. The stomach o f one I examined was very
full o f coleopterous and other insects, I rather think they catch as many on the ground as on the wing ; for
they frequently settle, and run with all the ease o f a Plover. They roost on the ground, and fly late at
night, their large eyes being well adapted for seeing in the dusk.”
The Rev. H. B. Tristram states that “ the Pratincole {Glareolapratincola) disappears from Palestine in
winter, but returns in great numbers to all the marshy plains in spring, when we found them on their
breeding-grounds, where they can be shot in any numbers, as they keep hovering over the intruders,
undismayed by repeated discharges o f the gun. As in Africa, they lay their eggs in a footprint in
the barest spots, without the slightest nest ; they are never found where there is a vestige of vegetation,
and, from their great similarity to the pebbles and bits o f clay around, are very difficult to discover, while -
the bird employs all the artifices of a Lapwing to decoy the spoiler from them.”
In the note from Lord Lilford accompanying the chicks above mentioned, he says :— !< The two young
Pratincoles were taken in the great marshes on the Guadalquivir, in Ju n e 1869, and had only left the
eggs a few hours. They were brought to me alive; and I can positively state that they run immediately
after being hatched. Pratincoles are very abundant in spring and summer in the locality above mentioned.
The flight and cry o f these birds, their habit of hawking for insects on the wing, and the colour of their
eyes forcibly reminded me o f the Tems l llM
About the beginning o f August the young birds fly about with the adults, which, being very much
attached to their progeny, accompany them until the commencement o f September, when they all move
southward for the winter. Their flight is described as of extraordinary rapidity; and their evolutions are
said to be exceedingly graceful, quick, and beautiful. •• When a flight passes through the air within sigh«;
they proceed very swiftly, and on lowering to alight they shoot like arrows by one another; finally they once
more open their wings to their full length, raise them highly, and then settle, rather closely spread, over
the ground.’’
The sexes do not appear to differ in their colouring, and but little in size.
The Plate represents the two sexes and the young, o f the size o f life.
I have figured four young birds, under the impression that, as with the Plovers, this was the normal
number ; but Lord Lilford is o f opinion that three would have been more correct.