294. CHARADRIIFORMES CHAP. 
breast, and the outer pair of rectrices white with broad black 
ends ; G. melanoptera (nordmanni) of South-East Europe and West 
Asia, migrating to South Africa, has black axillaries and under 
wing-coverts, as have the long-legged G. grallaria (isabella) with 
slightly forked tail and chestnut flanks, which breeds in Eastern 
Australia and occurs from New Guinea to Borneo, and the small 
erey-backed G. lactea of India, Ceylon, and Burma, with much 
white on the wings. The other species have reddish feet, fading to 
yellow; G. cinerea, ranging from the Niger to the Congo, possesses 
a rufous nuchal collar and white axillaries; G. nuchalis of the White 
Nile, and the hardly separable G. emini of Foda in Equatorial 
Africa, have a white collar and grey axillaries; G. megapoda, ex- 
tending from Liberia to the Niger, shews a rufous collar and 
erey axillaries. The last five forms, and G. ocularis, have the tail 
merely emarginated. Pratincoles have a shrill, screaming note 
and Swallow-like flight, insects,on which they feed, being ordinarily 
captured on the wing; but the general habits are those of Plovers, 
the birds running very fast, and the parents often swooping down 
upon an intruder, or cowering on the ground to draw attention 
from their brood. They frequent sand-banks, lagoons, bare 
plains, or coast-lands, laying two, three, or rarely four oval 
greenish-buff or greyish eggs, with purplsh-black, brown, and 
grey marblings, without any nest, on the sun-baked mud. 
The genus Cursorius, or Courser, inhabits the hotter portions 
of the Old World. C. gallicus, the Cream-coloured Courser, which 
visits Britain and the southern half of Europe irregularly, is met 
with in the Canary and Cape Verd Islands, North Africa, and the 
countries from Arabia to Northern India. The brown bill is thick 
and decurved, the whitish legs are long; the plumage is buff, with 
slaty nape, black remiges, axillaries, under wing-coverts, and sub- 
terminal tail-bar ; the face is white with a black post-ocular streak. 
Seldom found in flocks, this bird frequents dry sandy plains and 
deserts, crouching to avoid notice, running with extraordinary 
speed if approached, but rarely rising on the wing. The flight, 
however, is at times protracted. The food consists almost entirely 
of insects, such as grasshoppers, yet it includes small molluscs ; 
the note is harsh ; while two, or exceptionally three, round stone- 
coloured eggs with grey and brown markings are deposited on the 
bare ground. The axillaries and under wing-coverts are greyish- 
buff in C. somalensis, of Somaliland, but brownish-grey in C. 
