44 CURSORIUS EUROPCEUS. 



more northern countries it is to be considered an extremely 

 rare straggler. In England not more than four specimens 

 have been obtained. The first of these was shot on the 10th 

 of November, 1785, near St. Albans, in East Kent, the seat 

 of William Hammond, Esq., who presented it to Dr. Latham. 

 " He first met with it running upon some light land; and so 

 little fearful was it, that after he had sent for a gun, one was 

 brought to him, which, having been charged some time, did 

 not readily go off, and in consequence he missed his aim. 

 The report frightened the bird away ; but, after making a 

 turn or two, it again settled within a hundred yards of him, 

 when he was prepared with a second shot, which despatched 

 it. It was observed to run with incredible swiftness, and, at 

 intervals, to pick up something from the ground ; and was 

 so bold as to render it difficult to make it rise from the 

 ground, in order to take a more secure aim on the wing. 

 The note was not like any kind of Plover's, nor, indeed to 

 be compared with that of any known bird." Montagu states 

 that one was shot, in North Wales, in 1793, by Mr. George 

 Kingstone, of Queen's College, Oxford, a very accurate orni- 

 thologist. Mr. Atkinson, in his Compendium, mentions a 

 third that was shot near Wetherby, in April, 1816 ; and Mr. 

 George T. Fox, in the third volume of the Zoological Journal, 

 records a fourth, shot on the 15th of October, 1827, in 

 Charnwood Forest, in Leicestershire, and now in the pos- 

 session of the Rev. T. Gisborne, of Yoxall Lodge, Stafford- 

 shire. The Wetherby bird was seen on a piece of dry fallow 

 ground, running very swiftly, and making frequent short 

 nights, and that of Charnwood Forest was represented by the 

 person who shot it as uttering a cry with which he was un- 

 acquainted. Both were easily approached, as was the first 

 recorded. From these circumstances I think it appears to 

 resemble the Little Bustard more than the Plovers in its 

 habits. Its nest and eggs have not been described ; but the 

 young in their first plumage are marked in the manner of 

 the Sandpipers. 



Young. — The general colour of the upper parts is like 

 that of the adult, but tinged with grey, and the feathers 



