ANATOMY OF BIRDS
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS
CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS
LIZARD-TAILED BIRD
AMERICAN TOOTHED-BIRDS
THE OSTRICHES
THE RHEAS
EMEUS AND CASSOWARIES
THE TINAMOUS
THE KIWIS
THE PENGUINS
LOONS AND GREBES
ALBATROSSES & PETRELS
STORK-LIKE BIRDS
GOOSE-LIKE BIRDS
FALCON-LIKE BIRDS
FOWL-LIKE BIRDS
CRANE-LIKE BIRDS
PLOVER-LIKE BIRDS
CUCKOO-LIKE BIRDS
THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS
SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS
Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE PLOVER-LIKE BIRDS
THE PRATINCOLES AND COURSERS
The Pratincoles
all have similar habits, going usually in flocks of greater or less size and frequenting open, flat ground such as the sandy beds of large rivers, sandy plains, and desert places in the vicinity of water.
As a rule they rest on the sand during the middle of the day^ becoming active in the morning and evening, when they hawk back and forth for insects”like a gigantic Swallow,”now high up in the air, now just skimming the surface of the ground, or wheeling and darting about in a surprisingly active manner. They are, however, equally at home on the ground on which they run with ease and swiftness, notwithstanding the rather short legs.
Their food consists of moths, beetles, flies, grasshoppers, and other insects, the larger proportion being taken on the wing. The note of the common species, Mr. Dresser says, is a shrill whistle, kia, kia, usually uttered on the wing. They make no nest, but deposit the two or three large eggs in a slight depression on the bare sand.
Differing from the last merely in having the tail emarginate or nearly square are the Pratincoles of the genus Galactochrysea, of which five are found in Africa and one in the Indian peninsula, and Ceylon. On the ground of a much longer tarsus and a lengthened and attenuated first primary the Australian Pratincole is placed in a genus by itself (Stiltia Isabella). The habits of all are practically identical with those of the common species.
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