GLABEOLID.E CURSORIUS 325 



from five to twenty birds all over the high veld in open country. 

 It is said to be more abundant in winter than in summer in most 

 parts, and is probably at any rate partially migratory. It runs 

 with very great rapidity, and after making a dash of about twenty 

 yards will stop and bob backwards and forwards, and sway from 

 side to side, as if its first effort had been too much for it ; it is 

 difficult to flush and seldom flies far, so that it is fairly easy to 

 approach. It feeds on small seeds and insects, and is specially 

 fond of haunting burnt-off patches of grass. 



Burchell's Courser makes no nest, but lays two eggs in a 

 slight depression on the bare ground. Ayres found it breeding at 

 Potchefstroom in November. 



Major Sparrow obtained, at Mooi Eiver in Natal on September 

 25th, a clutch of two eggs which he presented to the South African 

 Museum ; these are rounded ovals without gloss ; the ground colour 

 is a very pale fawn, but it is nearly concealed by the very abundant 

 freckling and scrolling of dark brown and black ; the measurements 

 are M5 x 0.95. 



706. Cursorius temmincki. Temminck's Courser. 



Cursorius temmincki, Swains., ZooL Illustr. 1st ser. ii, pi. 106 (1822) ; 

 Sliarpe, Cat. B. M. xxiv, p. 41 (1896) ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 194 (1896) ; 

 Woodivard Bros., Natal B. p. 181 (1899) ; Marshall, Ibis, 1900, 

 p. 264 ; Eeiclienow, Vog. Afr. i, p. 155 (1900) ; Oates, Cat. B. Eggs, 

 ii, p. 361 (1902). 



Tachydromus senegalensis, Licht., Verz. Doubl. p. 72 (1823). 



Cursorius burchelli (nee Sivains.), Gurney, Ibis, 1860, p. 217 [Natal]. 



Cursorius senegalensis, Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 290 (1867) ; id. Ibis, 1869 

 p. 375; Gurney, in Anders son's B. Damaral. p. 261 (1872); Ayres, 

 Ibis, 1876, p. 433; Holub & Pels.. Orn. Siid-Afr. p. 246 (1882) ; 

 Butler, Feilden and Eeid, ZooL 1882, p. 341 ; Sliarpe, ed. Layard's 

 B. S. Afr. pp. 654, 855 (1884); Seebohm, Geogr. Distr. Charadr. 

 p. 239 (1888) ; Woodward Bros., Ibis, 1898, p. 226. 



Description Adult. Forehead and crown rich rufous, followed by 

 a black nape spot, the whole surrounded by a pale rufous eyebrow 

 which becomes white posteriorly, below this again is a black line 

 running from behind the eye through the ear-coverts and meeting 

 its fellow below the nape ; upper surface brown with an ashy tinge ; 

 primaries and primary-coverts black, secondaries browner with 

 wedge-shaped white tips ; central tail-feathers like the back, outer 

 ones with a subterminal black spot and white or rusty- white tips 



