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PRATINCOLE

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 255 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PRATINCOLE , a word apparently invented by J. Latham (Synopsis, v. 222), being the See also:

English rendering of Pratincola, applied in 1756 by P. Kramer (Elenchus, p. 381) to a See also:bird which had hitherto received no definite name, though it had See also:long before been described and even recognizably figured by Aldrovandus (Ornithologia, xvii. 9) under the vague designation of " hirundo marina." It is the Glareola pratincola of See also:modern ornithologists, forming the type of a genus Glareola, founded by M. J. See also:Brisson in 176o, belonging to the See also:group Limicolae, and constituting together with the coursers (Cursorius) a See also:separate See also:family, Glareolidae. The pratincoles, of which some eight or nine See also:species have been described, are all small birds, slendetly built and mostly delicately coloured, with a See also:short stout See also:bill, a wide gape, long pointed wings, and a tail more or less forked. In some of their habits they are thoroughly See also:plover-like, See also:running very swiftly and breeding on the ground, but on the wing they have much the See also:appearance of swallows, and, like them, feed, at least partly, while flying.' The See also:ordinary pratincole of See also:Europe, G. 'pratincola, breeds abundantly in many parts of See also:Spain, See also:Barbary and See also:Sicily, along the valley of the See also:Danube, and in See also:southern See also:Russia, while owing to its See also:great See also:powers of See also:flight it frequently wanders far from its See also:home, and more than a See also:score of examples have been recorded as occur-See also:ring in the See also:British Islands. In the See also:south-See also:east of Europe a second and closely-allied species, G. nordmanni or G. melanoptera, which has See also:black instead of See also:chestnut inner wing-coverts, accompanies or, farther to the eastward, replaces it; and in its turn it is replaced in See also:India, See also:China and See also:Australia by G. orientalis.

Australia also possesses another species, G. grallaria, remarkable for the great length of its wings and much longer legs, while its tail is scarcely forked—peculiarities that have led to its being considered the type of a distinct genus or sub-genus Stiltia. Two species, G. lactea and G. cinerea, from India and See also:

Africa respectively, seem by their See also:pale coloration to be See also:desert forms, and they are the smallest of this curious little group. The species whose mode of See also:nidification is known See also:lay either two or three eggs, See also:stone-coloured, blotched, spotted, and streaked with black or brownish-See also:grey. The See also:young when hatched are clothed in down and are able to run at once—just as are young plovers. (A.

End of Article: PRATINCOLE

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