204 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



167. Cream-coloured Courser, Cursorius gallicus 

 (Gmel.) 



On the 9th of March we saw a pair on the plahi at Govv, 

 and on the 27th of April I found a single bird at the same 

 place. He ran like a greyhound ; but, by making a stalking- 

 horse of a camel, I managed to get a long shot. He had 

 been eating white grubs about \\ inches long. Mr. Cory 

 showed me a couple which he had shot, I think he said at 

 Golosanah, but it cannot be considered by any means a 

 common bird. The legs are white. 



Obs. Houbara Bustard, Hottbara imdulata (Jacq.) 



I hoped to have got this bird at the Faioum. The 

 overseer of the sugar factory there knows it well. 

 He said they were not uncommonly brought in 

 by the Arabs : he had one alive three months. 



168. Crane, Gvjis commnnis, Bechst. 

 (Hasselquist, p. 207). 



I am not positive what was the last date on which we 

 saw the Crane. We thought we saw two on the 17th of 

 May, ; but if they really were Cranes, they were stragglers, 

 behind the main body which had departed north some 

 weeks before. They are said to be common in winter, but 

 I did not see one before February 14th. He was on a 

 sandbank with some Herons. As he towered above his 

 lesser brethren I felt no doubt of what he was, but we were 

 just then scudding along before a famous breeze, and could 

 not stop even for a Crane. But at Gebel-Tair on the 

 28th of February, nineteen were counted. Even this was 

 nothing to what we saw afterwards. At Siout and Gow 



