PRATINCOLES AND COURSERS 



2243 



and the legs cream color. The nearly black axillaries and under wing coverts, 

 coupled with the buff outer webs of the secondaries, will, however, serve to dis- 

 tinguish it from all its allies, the small courser (C. somalensis} being smaller, with 

 grayish-buff axillaries. In length the cream-colored courser varies from nine to 

 ten inches. 



Essentially a desert bird, the cream-colored courser (as may be seen in a case of 

 desert-haunting birds in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington) 

 harmonizes so closely in coloration with its sombre surroundings as to be almost 

 invisible at a short distance. In such districts, Mr. Seebohm states that ' ' it lives 





BLACK-BACKED COURSER. 



(One-half natural size.) 



on the arid sand plains or on the bare elevated plateaus, where scarce a tuft of 

 scanty herbage or a bush is to be found. It loves to frequent the bases of sand 

 hills, and is sometimes seen in the miserable desert pastures or among the 

 sand downs on the outskirts of the oases. In these dismal, uninteresting regions 

 the courser trips about in pairs, or less frequently in little parties. If it is not 

 exactly a shy bird, it appears to be a very wary one, and runs quickly off to conceal 

 itself as the traveler approaches. It prefers to run like lightning over the sand 

 rather than to take wing, every now and then pausing for a moment to look warily 



