50 ELEMENTS OF ORNITHOLOGY. 
a family found in both the Old World and the New, and con- 
sisting of five species. As their curious bill would suggest, they 
wade into the water in search of food. There is one European 
species, and this bred in England down to about 1670, and even 
now a few birds seem each year to visit us in spite of their 
Fig. 49. 

The Courser (Cursorius gallicus). 
unremitting destruction by the curious, and even by ornitholo- 
gists not ashamed of saying that thus a specimen of a rare 
British Bird has been by them “ obtained”! 
A well-known English Bird, the beak of which is not flat- 
tened but elongate and curved, is the Curlew (Wumentus arcuatus) : 
and it is to be found in winter on almost every part of our 
