CREAM-COLOURED COURSER 



Charadriid^.] 



CURSORIUS GALLICUS (J. F. Gmelin). 



Explanation of Plate. 



Figure 1. Puerteventura, Caaary Islands, March, 1891. 



„ 2. Ditto. Ditto. March 5, 188[). ( In collectioa of 



„ 3. Ditto. Ditto. March, 1891. | H. E. Dresser, Esq. 



„ 4. Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. ) 



„ 5. Tefia, Fuerteventura, Ditto. Feb. 7, 1891. 



„ 6. Ditto. Ditto. Feb. 11, 1891. 



This species is an accidental visitor, about twenty exami)lcs having been 

 obtained in Great Britain. There is no record from Ireland. 



Referring to this species, Mr. H. Saunders says * : — " In the west its true home 

 commences at the Canary Islands, on some of which, especially Fuerteventura, 

 the bird is fairly numerous ; while eastward it inhabits Africa north of the Sahara 

 — where Canon Tristram obtained the first eggs on record, and southward it is 

 found in Kordofan, as well as on both sides of the Red Sea. Through xlrabia we 

 follow it to Persia, Baluchistan, Northern India, and Afghanistan." 



Mr. A. O. Hume writes f : — " I believe that the first really authentic eggs of 

 the Cream-coloured Courser ever obtained were those procured for me in 1868 

 by Khan Nizam-ood-deen Khan, the well-known Punjab sportsman, in the 

 neighbourhood of Urncewalla in the western portion of the Sirsa District." 



After quoting the notes he had previously published on the subject, detailing 

 the circumstances under which he had received these eggs from the Khan, 

 Mr. Hume continues : — " Since this appeared, the Khan Sahib has taken nearly 

 one hundred eggs of this species, and I have myself visited his domains and 



taken more than a dozen with my own hands July was the month in 



which I found them, and it is in this month generally that the great bulk arc 

 found ; but the Khan has taken thcvufrom the middle of March to the middle of 



* ' Manual of British Birds,' p. .520. 



t ' Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds,' 2nd ed. vol. iii. pp. 325-327. 



^ MAY 1 6 1914 



