176 AVES GRALLATORES. [CuRsomus 



sparingly distributed : the edge of the wing, belly, and upper tail-coverts, 

 pure white : irides orange : bill and feet gray. (Female and young male.) 

 Throat white ; sides of the head, and upper part of the neck, yellowish 

 orange, with longitudinal dusky streaks ; lower part of the neck and 

 upper part of the breast the same, with transverse crescent-shaped dusky 

 bars ; lower breast and flanks whitish, spotted with dusky, the latter with 

 a few fine longitudinal streaks besides on the shafts of the feathers : 

 belly and abdomen white and unspotted : upper parts of the body much 

 as in the male. Obs. It is not certain whether the adult male does not 

 lose the black neck and double white collar in Winter, and resemble 

 the female during that season. (Egg.) Of a uniform olive-brown: 

 long. diam. two inches ; trans, diam. one inch six lines. 



A very rare, and only occasional, visitant in this country. Has been 

 taken alive on the edge of Newmarket Heath, and more recently near 

 Caxton in Cambridgeshire. Other specimens have been killed in Sussex, 

 Kent, Devonshire, Northumberland, and Suffolk. Frequents plains, and 

 large tracts of open country. Said to be graminivorous. Eggs three to 

 five in number, deposited on the ground. 



ORDER IV. GRALLATORES. 



GEN. 61. CURSORIUS. Lath. 



159- C. isabellinus, Meyer. (Cream-coloured Courser.) 

 General plumage reddish cream-colour: behind the eyes a 

 double black streak. 



C. isabellinus, Temm. Man. d'Orn. torn. n. p. 513. Cream-coloured 

 Plover, Lath. Syn. vol. in. p. 217. Id. Supp. p. 254. pi. 116. 

 Mont. Orn. Diet. Cream-coloured Swiftfoot, Selb. Illust. vol. n. 

 p. 217. pi. 33**. 



DIMENS. Entire length ten inches: length of the bill nine lines. 

 MONT. 



DESCRIPT. General colour of the plumage reddish cream or buff 

 orange, the feathers in some places with pale edges; throat whitish; 

 behind the eye a double black streak directed towards the occiput: 

 quills black: lateral tail-feathers black towards their extremities, the 

 black including a small white spot : abdomen whitish : bill black : legs 

 yellowish brown. In immature birds, the scapulars and wing-coverts are 

 crossed by numerous, fine, zigzag bars of a darker tint, more particularly 

 towards the tips of the feathers : the black streak behind the eyes very 

 faint. (Egg.) Unknown. 



A native of Africa, very rarely occurring in Europe. In England only 

 three specimens have been hitherto observed. The first of these was 

 shot near St Albans, in Kent, many years back ; the second was killed 

 in October 1827, at Charnwood Forest, Leicestershire; the third in the 

 year following, at Freston, near Aldborough, in Suffolk. Very little is 

 known of its habits. Said to inhabit dry plains, and to run very swiftly. 



