16 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1391. 



t 



840.— THE EUROPEAN COURIER PLOVER OR CREAM^ 



COLOURED COURSER. 



Cursorius gallicus, Gm. 



The Cream-coloured Courser is absent from the southern portion of 

 Western India ; it occurs as a more or less common cold weather 

 visitant in Guzerat and Rajpootaaa and in Upper Sind; in suitable 

 places it is fairly common, and said to be a permanent resident, breed- 

 ing in July. 



The eggs, two or three in number, cannot be distinguished 

 from those of the preceding. 



Mr. Hume, to whoso kindness I am indebted for a clutch of eggs, 

 Avhich he received from the Sirsa district, thus describes them : — 



" Typically the eggs are very broad ovals, only very slightly 

 compressed towards one end, but here and there slightly elongated 

 varieties occur, except that the ground-colour is yellower and more 

 buffy, many of the eggs, both as to shape and markings, appear per- 

 fect miniatures of some of the varieties of Esacux recurvirostrin (the 

 Large Stone Plover). 



" They have of course no gloss. 



" The ground-colour is pale-buff or creamy-stone colour, and the 

 most characteristic feature in the egg is the huge dull half- washed- 

 out inky clouds which underlie the brighter or primary markings, 

 which latter vary from black to olive-brown. 



" In some eggs, the secondary markings cover half or more than 

 half the surface of the egg, and are sooty black ; in others they arc 

 not only smaller but much less conspicuous, being a faint inky- 

 purple. 



" Typically the primary markings are very niggly in their character, 

 a combination of specks and spots and fine irregular lines, some 

 black or blackish-brown, some olive-brown, thickly sown over 

 the whole surface of the egg. Not unf requently, however, some few 

 among the markings are bolder and coarser, and stand out more 

 or less conspicuously from the general scratchy, mottled mass of 

 markings. 



" In some eggs the olive-brown is wholly wanting, and in one egg 

 before mc, the only representatives of the primary markings arc a 

 number of large blotches and spots of a very rich olive-brown. 



