534 CREAM-COLOURED COURSER. 



the same extent in France. Even to the south of the last, as well as 

 to Spain and the mainland of Italy, its visits are rare and irregular, 

 though somewhat more frequent in Sicily and Malta. In Bulgaria 

 and the Dobrudscha this species is unknown, and it is only a 

 wanderer to the steppes of South Russia. In the west its true 

 home commences at the Canary Islands, on some of which the bird 

 is numerous ; while eastward it inhabits Africa north of the Sahara — 

 where Canon Tristram obtained the first eggs on record (Ibis, 

 1.S59, P- 79, pi- ii-, fig. 3) ; and southward it is found in Kordofan, as 

 well as on both sides of the Red Sea. Through Arabia it can be 

 traced to Persia, Baluchistan, Afghanistan and Northern India, but 

 Dr. W. T. Blanford is doubtful respecting its asserted nesting in 

 India proper. Other members of the genus inhabit portions of 

 Asia and Africa ; the one most closely allied to the present species 

 being a native of Somali-land. 



On Fuerteventura, Canaries, Mr. Meade-Waldo obtained young 

 birds by March 23rd, on the barest parts of the desert, where the 

 stones were mostly small ; and such was the abundance of the species 

 on that island in 1891 that about a thousand eggs were taken for collec- 

 tors, while at least double that number were destroyed. Most of the 

 earlier eggs in European collections were, however, the produce of a 

 bird which was brought to Favier of Tangiers in 1851 and laid 

 them at irregular intervals until 1859. Their colour is stone-buff, 

 marbled or freckled with brown and purplish-grey : measurements 

 I "35 by I'l in. The clutch consists of 2 eggs, and incubation seems 

 to devolve upon the females ; the cocks either going about in little 

 parties, or mixing with birds that are not breeding. The food 

 consists of insects and small molluscs. The note emitted by the 

 female is syllabled by Favier as rererer. 



The adult has the beak dark brown ; irides hazel ; forehead and 

 crown of a sandy-buff, turning to grey and deepening to slate-blue 

 margined with black on the nape ; from the eye to the nape a white 

 streak, with a narrow black stripe below ; upper surface generally 

 sandy-buff; quills, under wing-coverts and axillaries black; under 

 parts pale greyish-buff, gradually passing into white at the vent ; legs 

 greyish. The sexes are alike in plumage. Length 10 in. ; wing 

 6'3 in. The young bird (in the background) is more rufous in tint, 

 and has no grey or black on the nape, while the eye-stripe is buff 

 instead of white ; the feathers of the throat and the upper parts 

 have dark crescentic markings. 



