218 



CURSOR1US CUSTARD APPLE. 



country throughout the year ; and, perhaps, the best 

 time to see it is upon a line frosty morning, at which 

 time it appears extremely active and lively ; it is 

 constantly in motion ; erecting the crest and tail, and 

 uttering a low note, resembling cha, cha, cha; it also 

 sings prettily, sitting on the topmost branches of the 

 furze, but the song wants variety, being always the 

 very same over and over again. Sometimes it mounts 

 singing a little way into the air, or suspends itself over 

 the furze ; but at the least alarm it will descend into 

 the covert, and it will be a long time before you can 

 get another sight of it. It trusts entirely to conceal- 

 ment for protection, threading the intricacies of the 

 thickest bush with great rapidity ; and if in a solitary 

 detached bush, you may knock about for ever without 

 bringing it out ; it will sooner suffer itself to be taken 

 by the hand. Both nest and eggs of this bird are very 

 like those of the whitethroat, and the young quit the 

 nest in the same manner, before they are half fledged : 

 at this time the artifices of the parents to draw an 

 intruder off are very amusing ; they make the same 

 harsh sound as the whitethroat, and will almost suffer 

 the hand to touch them, and then, perhaps, will fall 

 from the spray, and tumble along the ground, as if 

 fluttering in the last struggle for existence. 



In confinement its habits resemble those of the 

 whitethroat and its congeners, and it feeds on the 

 same food ; this it will frequently take while suspended 

 to the wires with its head downward. It will also 

 sometimes climb along the wires, a habit which, 

 among the British warblers, is peculiar to this species 

 and the lesser whitethroat. Both these little birds, 

 also, in the cage, frequently perform somersets in the 

 air, throwing themselves over backward ; and both of 

 them, at times, will utter a singular sort of rattling 

 note peculiar to themselves. The furze wren is found 

 in some parts of Germany, and is very common in the 

 south of France ; from its abundance upon the com- 

 mons in Provence, it has received the trivial name of 

 Provincial^. Buffbn was the first to describe it, which 

 he did under the name of " Ic Pilchou de Provence." 



CURSORIUS Swift-foot, a genus belonging to 

 the pressirostral division of Echassiers,w stilt-birds, of 

 which the generic characters are as follow : bill slen- 

 der, conical throughout, and with a moderate gape ; 

 wings very short, or of mean length, second quill the 

 longest, the coverts as long as the quills ; tarsi long 

 and slender ; toes three, all horned to the point, and 

 without any web. 



These birds form a sort of intermediate link be- 

 tween the ostriches and the plovers, they are birds of 

 the deserts, shy and retired in their manners.and found 

 only in the warm parts of the eastern continent ; but 

 one of the species, at least, is discursive over a great 

 range of surface, and makes a dash into the southern 

 parts of Europe, and even into England. They are, 

 perhaps, the fleetest footed of birds ; and, if they are 

 not come upon by surprise, or in places which are 

 new to them, and in which they get bewildered and 

 entangled among bushes, they are out of the reach of 

 fire-arms in no brief space, so that very few of them are 

 found. Of their time and manner of nesting, number 

 of young, and other points of their economy in their 

 native wilds, we are altogether ignorant. Three 

 species, at least, are known. 



CURSORIUS ISABELLICUS common Swift-foot. A 

 native of the northern parts of Africa: Isabelle yellow, 

 or reddish cream colour, on the upper part, white on the 

 uader ; top of the head red ; two black rays over each 



eye, separated by a patch of white ; wing coverti 

 bordered with ash colour, quills black ; bill black ; legs 

 ash colour, length between nine and ten inches. 

 Sometimes, but very rarely, straggles into England. 



CURSORIUS BICINCTUS two collared Swift-foot. 

 Also a native of Africa. Upper part brownish ash, each 

 feather margined with reddish white ; middle coverts 

 of the wings reddish, quills black ; rump white, under 

 parts reddish ; a narrow black collar on the lower part 

 of the neck, and a broader one on the breast ; rather 

 larger than the former. 



CURSORIUS ASIATICUS Coromandel Swift-foot. A 

 native of India. Brown on the upper part ; top of the 

 head, back of the neck, and breast, maroon red ; lower 

 belly and quills black ; coverts of the wings ash-coloured, 

 with white tips, and a black spot near the tip ; thighs 

 and coverts, and feathers of the tail, also white ; bill 

 black ; feet yellow. This species is rather the small- 

 est of the three ; but there is no great difference in 

 size between any of them. The last two have not 

 been seen in the west of Europe. 



CURTISIA (Hortus Kewensis). This is a tree 

 from the Cape of Good Hope, named in honour of 

 W. Curtis, founder of the Botanical Magazine, and 

 other works relative to plants. It belongs to the 

 natural order Cclastrinece, is treated as a greenhouse 

 plant, but had never flowered in this country before 

 1831 ; according to the late Mr. Sweet, at the Cape 

 it is called the Hassagay Tree. 



CUSCUTA (Limueus). This genus is one of the 

 most curious vegetable parasites known. Two species 

 are indigenous in Britain, and there are six or seven 

 foreign species. It belongs to Pentandria Digynia, 

 and to the natural order Convolvulacets. Generic cha- 

 racter : calyx of four or five lobes. Corolla some- 

 what globular, persisting, four or five cleft, and having 

 scales at the base : stamens growing to the tube of 

 the corolla ; capsule two-celled, opening at the base ; 

 cells two-seeded. The dodder, as it is called in Eng- 

 land, rises from its seed like any other dicotyledonous 

 plant, and is supported by its own roots until its stems 

 can lay hold of some other plant. This it holds in a 

 firm embrace, inserting small fibres or suckers into the 

 bark of its supporter, whence it draws nourishment 

 after its own roots are dead. The nurse often dies 

 under the burthen and exhaustion caused by the para- 

 site, which is not very nice in its choice of a foster 

 parent ; heath, furze, broom, or thistles are equally 

 relished by the incumbent ; and, if introduced into the 

 greenhouse by accident, riots among the plants there 

 as unceremoniously as if it were on its native com- 

 mon. The dodder is sometimes raised as a curiosity ; 

 seeds are sown in pots, and when the seedlings are 

 strong enough, they are placed close to the side of 

 some soft-wooded, worthless plant, which they soon 

 lay hold of and cover, extending a considerable dis- 

 tance around, if not prevented. The plants flower 

 abundantly, and some of the species are fragrant. 



CUSTARD APPLE. (The fruit of a genus 

 found in the East and West Indies, called Anona by 

 Linnaeus, because so named by the inhabitants of the 

 Island of Banda, where some of the species are found. 

 Indeed these fruit-trees are cultivated in gardens all 

 over India, on the continent as well as on the Islands 

 in the Indian Sea. In value and quality the fruit 

 may be compared to some of our common pears, but 

 with a less firm pulp, so soft, indeed, as to be easily 

 sucked out of the skin. The Anona cherimolia, a 

 native of South America, is said to be a fruit of very 



