CREAM-COLOURED COURSER. 463 



bird engraved by Bewick ; and I am indebted to the kind- 

 ness of G. C. Atkinson, Esq., of Newcastle, for an early 

 proof of this subject, sent me with a copy of his Sketch 

 of the Life and Works of the distinguished artist. 



A beautiful adult specimen of this very rare bird was 

 shot by Mr. Walter Langton, on East Down, Salisbury 

 Plain, on the 2nd of October last, 1855. Mr. Langton 

 was following a wild covey of Partridges which had settled 

 on the open downs, when his pointers stood at this bird ; 

 it got up, flew about a hundred yards, and pitched again ; 

 he kept it in sight, and shot it on the ground. The bird 

 was sent to Mr. Gardiner, 426, Oxford Street, to be pre- 

 served. I saw the bird before it was skinned, and Mr. 

 Gardiner very kindly gave me the body, when skinned, for 

 examination. It was a male, the stomach membranaceous, 

 the contents a dozen skins of caterpillars, apparently of 

 the Garden White Butterfly, one wireworm, one small- 

 shelled snail, Helix ericitorum, and many fragments of the 

 hard portions of small beetles. Mr. Gardiner's gift 

 enables me to figure the breast-bone of this rare bird. 



Of the habits, nidification, or eggs of this species little 

 further is known. M. Vieillot notices that it has occurred 

 twice in France. M. Temminck mentions one that was 

 obtained in Germany, and preserved in a collection of Na- 

 tural History at Darmstadt. Polydore Roux includes it 

 among his Birds of Provence. In the Museum at Geneva 

 there is an example that was killed in Switzerland ; and it 

 has been obtained in Spain and Italy ; but the specimens 

 of this bird preserved in collections have generally been 

 procured from Barbary or Abyssinia. It was found by 

 the Russian naturalists in the plains at the base of the 

 Caucasus. 



The beak is nearly black at the point, brown at the 

 base ; the irides hazel ; the top of the head buff-colour, 



