This elegant bird, — le Coure-vite Isabelle, of Temminck, — and Corrione 

 biondo, of Italian writers, was arranged, by Gmelin, in the Plover genus, under 

 the title of Charadrius Gallicus ; and is briefly noticed, but not figured, by 

 Bewick, in his last edition of the History of British Birds, as the Cream- 

 coloured Plover. It was first separated from that genus by Latham, and taken as 

 the type of a new genus, Cursorius ; of which the following are the distinguish- 

 ing characters : Bill shorter than the head ; depressed at the base ; slightly arched 

 and curved, and pointed, at the tip. Nostrils, oval, basal, lateral, and surmounted 

 by a slightly protuberant membrane. Legs long, slender, and naked to some dis- 

 tance above the tarso-tibial joint. Toes three, short; all directed forwards, 

 and united by membrane at their base : interior toe much shorter than the middle 

 toe. Nails small ; that of the middle toe broad, and pectinated on its inner 

 margin. Naked portion of the tibia, front of the tarsus, and upper surface of the 

 toes scutellated. Wings of mean length : first quill-feather almost as long as the 

 second, which is longest. 



The following is a correct description of a finely-preserved specimen of the 

 adult Cream-coloured Swiftfoot, in the Birmingham Museum of Natural History : 



Bill black, nearly four-fifths of an inch long. Forehead and crown of the 

 head, pale buff-orange ; changing, on the hind head, into ash- or smoke-grey. 

 (The irides, according to Selby, are pale yellowish-grey). A white streak extend- 

 ing from above the middle of the eye, pointed anteriorly and growing broader as 

 it runs backward, to unite with its fellow at the occiput. Beneath, and in contact 

 with this, a black streak of nearly uniform width, commencing at the posterior part 

 of the eye, and extending to meet its fellow, by an attenuated line on the posterior 

 margin of the white band on the occiput. The occipital angle of the white streak 

 filled up, and bordered to a short distance, by an irregularly- but somewhat cres- 

 cent-shaped patch of black. Nape of the neck bright buff-orange. Whole upper 

 parts of the body sienna-yellow, with an irregularly distributed tinge of ash-grey. 

 Chin, throat, neck, and inferior parts, pale yellowish-white. Quill-feathers deep- 

 brown, bordered at the extremity with buff, and reaching to the end of the tail. Tail 

 slightly rounded, buff-orange : tail-feathers exhibiting, near the tip, a dark-brown 

 patch much more distinctly visible on the inferior than the superior surface. Tail- 

 coverts, above and below, light-grey. Tibiae invested, half way down, with grey 

 feathers. Tarsi pale buff-orange. Toes more dusky. Claws brown. 



Temminck describes " the young of the year," as exhibiting, on the superior 

 parts, a much clearer yellow colour (isabelle beaucoup plus clair) than the adult 

 bird ; varied, on the scapulars and wing-coverts, by numerous zigzag marks of a 

 deeper tint. The double black streak, — or rather, as I have more correctly de- 

 scribed it, the ordinarily black streak and crescent, — is but faintly marked in 

 bright-brown. Such, at least, are the characters of a young Swiftfoot preserved 

 in the cabinet of Natural History, at Darmstadt. 



