112 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family CURSORIID/E. The Coursers, Pratincoles, &c. 



The birds in the present family are characterised by having schizorhinal 

 nostrils (with the sole exception of the genus Pluvianus, containing a single 

 species, in which they are holorhinal, as in the Stone Curlews ) ; the basipterygoid 

 processes are also absent, as in the latter birds. The hallux is wanting in the 

 Coursers, but present in the Pratincoles and Crab Plover ; whilst the metatarsus 

 is scutellated in all. The bill is somewhat short and curved, the genys and 

 dertrum not being especially prominent. In the Coursers the legs are long, but 

 in the Pratincoles they are generally comparatively much shorter. Moult, 

 apparently single, in autumn. This family contains, so far as is at present known, 

 twenty-six species and races, distributed over the southern portions of the 

 Palsearctic region, throughout the Ethiopian region, the Oriental region, and the 

 Australian region. Dr. Sharpe, the most recent monographer of the GHARADRII- 

 FORMES, subdivides the present family into eight genera, three of which contain 

 but a single species. The validity of some of these genera seems open to question. 

 The Coursers and the Pratincoles are both represented in the British list. 



Genus CURSOR1US, or Typical Coursers. 



Type, CUESOKIUS GALLICUS. 



Cursorius, of Latham (1790). The birds comprising the present genus 

 are characterised by having no nasal groove, the nostril being situated in a 

 depression no more elongated than the opening. They are further characterised 

 by having the tail unforked, and no hind toe. The wings are rather long and 

 pointed, the primaries reaching to the end of the tail ; the tail is rounded. The 

 tarsus is long, the lower portion of the tibia devoid of feathers, the claw on the 

 middle toe is pectinated along the inner margin. The bill is a little shorter than 

 the head, nearly straight to the nasal orifice, then both mandibles arched to the tip. 



This genus is composed of six species and subspecies, confined to the Eastern 

 hemisphere, being inhabitants of the Ethiopian, Southern Palaearctic, and 

 Oriental regions. One species is a rare straggler to the British Islands. 



The Coursers are dwellers on sandy plains and deserts. Their flight is rapid 

 and well-sustained, but they are birds of skulking habit, and live principally on 

 the ground, where they walk and run with ease. Their notes are harsh. They 

 subsist principally on insects and their larvae. They make no nest, but deposit 

 their two or three rotund eggs in a depression in the ground ; these are spotted. 

 They are monogamous, and more or less social all through the year. 



