GLAREOLA ORIENTALIS, Leaca.
Oriental Pratincole.

Glareola Orientalis, Leach in Linn. Trans., vol. xiii. pp. 132, 187. tab. xii. fig. 1. male, fig. 2. female.

List of Birds in Brit. Mus Coll., part iii. p. 62

Less.

Traité d’Orn., p. 541.

Oriental Pratincole, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. ix. p. 365.

 

A smauu collection of birds presented to the Linnean Society in the early part of 1827 by Alexander

MacLeay, Ksq., of Sydney, comprised a pair of these birds ; unfortunately the whole were unaccompanied

by any information as to the part of Australia in which they had been procured, but as all the other species
were peculiar to the eastern and northern parts of the continent, it is reasonable to infer that the present
bird was also killed in one «

r other of those localities. The true habitat of the Oriental Pratincole is India
and the neighbouring

g islands ; it is most likely, therefore, that its visits to Australia are onlv occasional.
Crown and all the upper surface olive ; primaries brownish black ; secondaries black, glossed with ereen

tail-coverts and tail white, the apical portion of the latter black ; throat white, encircled by a broken ring

upper part of the abdomen crossed by an indistinct band of buff, which
gradually fades into the white of the vent and under tail-coverts ;

of black ; chest greyish brown ;
under surface of the wing rich deep rust-
red; bill black : gape yellow ; feet blackish brown.

The young of the year is similar 1

n colour, but much paler, and has only an indication of the ring
surrounding the throat.

The Plate represents a male and a female of the natural size.