CHARADRIID/K. 



519 









THE CREAM-COLOUREU COURSER. 



CuRSORius GALLicus (J. F. (imelin). 



The Cream-coloured Courser is only an irregular wanderer to the 

 countries north of the Mediterranean, and its specific name is 

 purely owing to the fact that the bird was first described from an 

 example killed in France. Although, however, an inhabitant of 

 southern and even desert localities, yet — such are the eccentricities 

 of migration — its visits to Great Britain have been, with one doubtful 

 exception, between the early part of October (in which month six 

 individuals are known to have been killed) and December. Kent, 

 Middlesex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Northumber- 

 land, Cumberland, Leicestershire, 'North Wales' in 1793 and 

 Cardiganshire in October 1886, Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, 

 Wilts and Hants, may be enumerated among the districts in which 

 it has been identified ; about a score of specimens having been 

 obtained altogether, inclusive of one shot on October Sth 1S68 in 

 Lanarkshire — the only instance in Scotland. It has not yet been 

 noticed in Ireland. A bird killed about the autumn of i860 near 

 St. Michaels-in-VVyre, Lancashire, and recorded as a Courser, has 

 since proved to be an example of the Sociable Plover, I'ancllus 

 gregaiius, to be noticed hereafter. 



