CURSORIIN^. 



533 





THE CREAM-COLOURED COURSER. 



CuRSORius GALLicus (J. F. Gmclin). 



The Cream-coloured Courser is only an irregular wanderer to the 

 countries north of the Mediterranean, and its specific name is 

 owing to the accident that the bird was first described from an 

 example killed in France. Although, however, an inhabitant of 

 southern and even desert localities, yet — such are the eccentricities 

 of migration — its visits to Great Britain have been, with one doubtful 

 exception, between the early part of October (in which month seven 

 individuals are known to have been killed) and December. Kent, 

 Middlesex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Northumber- 

 land, Cumberland, Leicestershire, 'North Wales' in 1793 and 

 Cardiganshire in October 1886, Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, 

 Wilts and Hants, may be enumerated among the districts in which 

 it has been identified ; and altogether about a score of specimens 

 have been obtained, inclusive of one shot on October 8th 1868 in 

 Lanarkshire — the only instance in Scotland. The species has not 

 yet been noticed in Ireland. 



As a straggler this Courser has occurred once near Liege in 

 Belgium, once in Holland, once (in 1835 or 1836) in Heligoland, 

 three or four times in Northern and Central Germany, and to about 



