CURSORIDiE. 



621 



The Indian Courier Plover. 



Descr. — Top of head bright ferruginous ; lores, continued througK 

 the eye to nape, black, and a white eyebrow ; upper plumage pale 

 ashy or Isabella brown ; quills and primary-coverts black ; chin 

 white ; neck and breast pale Isabella rufous, deepening on the ab- 

 domen to chesnut, and terminating in a black bar on the middle 

 of the belly ; lower abdomen, vent, and under tail-coverts white. 



Bill black ; irides deep brown ; tarsus creamy white. Length 9 to 

 10 inches ; extent 19 ; wing 6 ; tail 2| ; tarsus 2^ ; bill at front ^. 



The Courier-plover is found throughout the greater part of 

 India ; it is unknown in lower Bengal and the Malabar Coast, is rare 

 in upper Bengal and Behar, and very abundant in the Deccan and 

 Western India. It associates in small flocks, frequenting the 

 barest plains and ploughed lands, and is very abundant on the 

 Cavalry parade ground at Jalna. It runs about rapidly, nodding 

 its head occasionally when it stops, and picks up various insects, 

 chiefly coleoptera and the larvsB of certain grasshoppers. Burgess 

 states correctly that it has the peculiar habit of running for a 

 distance at speed, suddenly stopping, erecting the body, and then 

 starting off again. 



It breeds on a hollow in the ground, from March to May, laying 

 usually three eggs, of a pale greenish yellow colour, much 

 blotched and spotted with black, and with a few dusky olive 

 spots. It is rather a silent bird. The eggs of the European bird 

 have been figured in the ' Ibis' vol. 1, pi. 2 ; they are said to be 

 always three in number, plover-like, with numerous minute red 

 spots on a greenish ground, 



Mr. Blyth writes me that C. isabelUnus apud Horsfield is C%a- 

 radrius veredus, Gould. 



Other species are Cursorius gallicuSy Gmel., {isahellinus, Meyer), 

 the cream-colored Courier, found in Africa and the South of 

 Europe, and occasionally met with in England ; two or three others 

 from Africa, and one from the Indian islands, C. rufus, figured 

 by Gould in his Icones Avium. 



Gen. Rhinoptilus, Strickland. 

 Syn. Macrotarsius, Blyth — Chalcopterus, Reich. — HemerodromuSf 

 Heuglin. 



