CREAM-COLOURED COURSER. 49 
Norfolk by very reliable witnesses, I think it may be 
now fairly included in the present list. The first inti- 
mation of the probability of this bird having appeared 
on our coast was given me by the Rev. HE. W. Dowell, 
who writes, “in the autumn of 1847, Mr. Wood, of 
Morston, near Blakeney, told me that there was a strange 
bird frequenting his fields, something like a plover, which 
ran very fast. He had seen it for several days, and it 
appeared very tame, but, although I went after it at once, 
of course it was gone. From Mr. Wood’s description, I 
had no difficulty in recognising this bird as the Cream- 
coloured Courser.” To this statement I may add that 
Mr. Wood is well acquainted with all the ordinary forms 
of plover, Tringe, and other shore-birds frequenting 
that portion of the coast, and but for some marked 
peculiarity in this instance would not have informed 
Mr. Dowell of the supposed rarity. Still more recently 
Mr. Anthony Hamond, jun., pointed out to me a field 
near the roadside, at Westacre, in which a bird, exactly 
answering the description of the cream-coloured courser, 
was seen both by himself and his father on several 
occasions, as they drove past. This was in the-autumn 
of 1855 or 1856, but from a recent fall out hunting, he 
was unable to go after it with his gun, and his father, 
in April, 1816; one in Leicestershire in October, 1827; and one on 
Eastdown, Salisbury Plain, in October, 1855; as well as those 
since recorded—two seen and one killed, at Braunton, in Devon- 
shire, October, 1856 (“ Zool.,” 5846), one killed in Hackney marshes, 
October 19th, 1857 (* Zool.” 6309); and one near Maryport, 
October, 1864 (‘ Zool.,” 9418)—it is worthy of note that, although 
said to be a scarce migrant even in the south of Hurope, this 
species has appeared less frequently (including the two Norfolk 
examples), in the south of England, than in counties further to the 
north. In every instance but one (April), also, where the date is 
known, this species has occurred in autumn, not less than six 
having been seen or killed in October. 
H 
