CREAM-COLOURED COURSER. 49 



Norfolk by very reliable witnesses, I think it may be 

 now fairly included in the present list. The first inti- 

 mation of the probability of this bird having- appeared 

 on our coast was given me by the Rev. E. W. Do well, 

 who writes, " in the autumn of 1847, Mr. Wood, of 

 Morston, near Bla,keney, told me that there was a strange 

 bird frequenting his fields, something like a plover, which 

 ran very fast. He had seen it for several days, and it 

 appeared very tame, but, although I went after it at once, 

 of course it was gone. From Mr. Wood's description, I 

 had no difiiculty in recognising this bird as the Cream- 

 coloured Courser." To this statement I may add that 

 Mr. Wood is well acquainted with all the ordinary forms 

 of plover, Tringce, and other shore-birds frequenting 

 that portion of the coast, and but for some marked 

 peculiarity in this instance would not have informed 

 Mr. Dowell of the supposed rarity. Still more recently 

 Mr. Anthony Hamond, jun., pointed out to me a field 

 near the roadside, at Westacre, in which a bird, exactly 

 answering the description of the cream-coloured courser, 

 was seen both by himself and his father on several 

 occasions, as they drove past. This was in the autumn 

 of 1855 or 1856, but from a recent fall out hunting, he 

 was unable to go after it with his gun, and his father, 



in April, 1816 ; one in Leicestershire in October, 1827 ; and one on 

 Eastdown, Salisbury Plain, in October, 1855; as well as those 

 since recorded two seen and one killed, at Braunton, in Devon- 

 shire, October, 1856 (" Zool.," 5346), one killed in Hackney marshes, 

 October 19th, 1857 ("Zool.," 6309); and one near Maryport, 

 October, 1864 (" Zool.," 9418) it is worthy of note that, although 

 said to be a scarce migrant even in the south of Europe, this 

 species has appeared less frequently (including the two Norfolk 

 examples), in the south of England, than in counties further to the 

 north. In every instance but one (April), also, where the date is 

 known, this species has occurred in autumn, not less than six 

 having been seen or killed in October. 



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