SOUTH AFRICAN COURSERS 85 



coursers. Of this habit Mr. Layard remarks : " They 

 (Burchell's coursers) have a curious habit of swaying 

 themselves to and fro on their long thin legs when 

 halting after a run, as if they had overshot themselves 

 and were trying to recover their balance." From my 

 own observation, I have little doubt that Mr. Layard's 

 surmise exactly hits the fact, and that the swaying 

 habit is merely part of a steadying process after the 

 swift runs in which the coursers so frequently 

 indulge. 



A very rare South African courser is Heuglin's 

 courser (Cursor ius heuglini), first identified by Von 

 Heuglin, and figured by him in the lUs (1863, p. 

 31, pi. 1). Von Heuglin's specimen was obtained at 

 Gondokoro, on the White Nile, and was for some time 

 the only example recorded, until that indefatigable 

 naturalist, the late C. J. Andersson, obtained two 

 specimens at Ondonga, in Ovampoland, South- West 

 Africa. This latter pair was for some time in the 

 collection of Mr. J. E. Harting, who writes concerning 

 them : " This appears to be an extremely rare species. 

 ... I cannot see that it is generically distinct from 

 Cursorms, any more than the better known C. 

 chalcoptencs." Mr. J. H. Gurney, who edited the 

 late C. J. Andersson's Birds of Damaraland, is of 

 opinion that this rare courser stands intermediate 

 between the clialcojpterus and hicinchis, an opinion 

 which most naturalists will be inclined to accept, 



