CREAM-COLOURED COURSER 



Cursorius gallicus 



General plumage a bright clear yellowish sand colour ; 

 forehead a bright burnt sienna ; crown of head a light lilac- 

 grey ; eyebrows white ; eyes brown ; legs white. Length, 

 10 inches. 



This is one of the birds commonly selected as an 

 illustration of "protective coloration." It lives 

 in the sandy deserts, and its plumage displays a 

 curiously harmonious blending of the various 

 colours to be found on the dry, stony, sandy soil. 

 The very markedly contrasting colours of the head 

 are just the very same that you see in the pebbles 

 or stones, and the smoother passages of delicate 

 buff and greyish -yellow are the counterpart of 

 the curving slopes of pure sand ; whilst even the 

 startling enamel-like white of the legs resembles 

 the bleached, hard, dry stalks of the desert vege- 

 tation. When the bird crouches down it is 

 practically invisible, though, as the phrase is, it 

 may be " right under your nose," but as a matter 

 of fact it seems most often to perversely upset 

 the whole value of what we men deem its valuable 



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