T he P ratincole is an inhabitant of the "temperate and
warmer parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia; and from its
great powers of flight, indicated by its long wings, it has, as
might be expected, an extensive geographical range.
Mr. Bullock, of the London Museum, in the eleventh
volume of the Transactions of the I Linnean Society, thus records
the first captures of this species in this country.
“ The first instance~'6f this bird having been .killed in
Britain occurred in ,18075 when one was shot in the neighbourhood
of Ormskirk in Lancashire: it was preserved by
Mr. J. Sherlock, of that place, from whom I purchased it
a few days afterwards. On the 16th of August 1812, I
killed another specimen of this bird in the Isle of Unst,
about three miles, from the northern extremity of Britain.
When I first discovered it, Jit rose within a few feet and flew
round me in the manner of a Swallow, and then alighted close
to the head of a cow that was tethered Within ten yards1 distance.
After examining it a few minutes, I returned to the
house of T. Edmondson, Esq. for my gun, and, accompanied
by that gentleman’s brother, went in search of it. After a
short time it came out of some growing corn, and was catching
insects at the time I fired; and, being only wounded in
the wing, we had an opportunity of examining it alive. In
the form of its bill, wings, and tail, as well as its mode of
flight, it greatly resembles the genus Hirundo; but, contrary
to the whole of this family, the legs were long, and bare
above the knee, agreeing with Tringa; and, like the Sandpipers,
it ran with the greatest rapidity when on the ground,
or in shallow water, in pursuit of its food, which was wholly
of flies, of which its stomach was full.”
The bird killed near Ormskirk is in the collection of the
Earl of Derby. The other remained in Mr. Bullock’s possession
till the sale of the contents of his museum in 1819 ;
when I find, ,by a reference to my priced catalogue, that this
specimen from Shetland produced 8/. 8s., and was transferred
to the British Museum.
Mr. Joseph Clarke, of Saffron Walden, sent me word that
a pair of Pratincoles was shot on the Breydon-wall near Yarmouth,
in May 1827, by John Bessy, a fisherman, and sold
to Isaac Harvey, a bird preserver, who resold them for 71.
The occurrence and capture of this pair of Pratincoles is
.mentioned in Paget’s sketch of the Natural History of Yarmouth
and its neighbourhood (page 10).
From Mr. F. Holme I learned, that a Pratincole was shot
by Frederick Oates, Esq. of Branston Hall, near Lincoln, on
the. 15th of August 1827, while flying about much like a
Swallow, and near the ground.
The Rev. Leonard Jenyns Sent me notice of a Pratincole
shot in Wilbraham Fen, Cambridgeshire, in May 1835; and
I have since ascertained that this specimen is now in the collection
of J. T. Martin, Esq. of Quy Hall, in that county;
In May 1840, a Pratincole was shot upon the shore of the
harbour of Blakeney in Norfolk, by Henry Overton, a
fowler, and passed into the possession of Mr. John Sparham,
by whom it was presented to Henry Rogers, Esq. solicitor,
at Thetford. A living specimen was preserved for some
months in the aviary at the Gardens of the Zoological Society.
It was very quiet in confinement, and had.a habit
of throwing the head back, as if looking upwards. M. Tem-
minck says it frequents the banks of rivers, and the marshy
margins of large lakes, making its nest among rushes or other
dense aquatic vegetati9n. I have, however, very lately learned
something more. V Among a collection of birds, recently
presented to the Zoological Society by the son of Drummond
Hay, Esq., and which had been shot by this young gentleman
in the vicinity of Tangiers, were two skins of the Pratincole.
On making inquiry of the donor in reference to the Pratincole
particularly, I learned that the habits of this bird correb
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