SOUTH AFRICAN COURSERS 81 



general shape is very elegant, far more so, indeed, 

 than the only two plates of which I know would 

 imply. These plates are to be found in the works 

 of Gray and Temminck. They are fairly correct 

 in drawing, but they entirely fail to convey the 

 wonderful natural beauty of the bird. I should 

 note that in Gray's work the legs of this bird are 

 coloured yellow instead of red, which they ought to 

 be. Although this courser is of wide distribution, 

 I do not think it can anywhere be very common. 

 It is only sparsely found in South Africa, between 

 the Zambesi and the Orange rivers. In Cape 

 Colony I do not think it occurs at all. More to the 

 eastward, in Natal, it has, according to Mr. E. L. 

 Layard (Birds of South Africa), been identified by 

 Mr. Ayres. 



Mr. Seebohm, in his excellent monograph on the 

 Charadriadce, says of the violet-winged courser, that 

 it is "found from Senegambia almost to the Red 

 Sea, and near to both coasts in South Africa," and 

 that it probably occurs in tropical Africa. Its 

 general distribution is undoubtedly very wide, but I 

 have never heard of this courser being found south of 

 the Orange River. It is, however, I think unquestion- 

 able that the bird passes to and from the north and 

 south of the continent, and is therefore to be found 

 at times in tropical Africa upon suitable ground. 

 It first appears in South Africa at the commence- 



