218 GRALLATORES. CURSORIUS. SWIFTFOOT. 



This beautiful specimen, now in the possession of the Rev. 

 T. GISBORNE, of Yoxall Lodge, Staffordshire, was kindly 

 lent to ma for the purpose of enriching these " Illustrations ;" 

 and I have thus been enabled to give a correct figure of this 

 bird in the Second Series, in the situation that it properly holds 

 in the systematic arrangement now adopted. It is one of our 

 Very rare rarest visitants, the above being, as far as I can collect, the 

 third instance only of its appearance in Britain. Of the two 

 prior specimens, one was shot in Kent, near the seat of WIL- 

 LIAM HAMMOND, Esq. and was sent to Dr LATHAM* ; and, as 

 the following account which accompanied it is particularly in- 

 teresting, as being descriptive of its manners, I make no apo- 

 logy for transcribing it : " It was first met with running upon 

 some light land, and so little fearful was it, that, after hav- 

 ing sent for a gun, one was brought to him, which did not 

 readily go off, having been charged some time, and in. conse- 

 quence missed his aim. The report frightened the bird 

 away, but, after making a turn or two, it again settled within 

 a hundred yards of him, when he was prepared with a second 

 shot, which dispatched it. It was observed to run with in- 

 credible swiftness, and at intervals to pick up something 

 from the ground, and was so bold as to render it difficult to 

 make it rise from the ground, in order to take a more secure 

 aim on the wing. The note was not like any kind of Plo- 

 vers, nor indeed to be compared with that of any known 

 bird." The other specimen is mentioned by MONTAGU, as 

 having been killed in Wales, and was afterwards in the col- 

 lection of the late Professor SIBTHOEP, of Oxford. Africa 

 is the native region of this species, particularly the northern 

 and western parts of that secluded country, where it inhabits 

 the extensive plains of the desert. In Europe, even its ap- 

 pearance is of the rarest occurrence, as there are only two 



This specimen found its way into the Leverian Museum,, at the sale 

 of which it was purchased by FICHTEL, who afterwards disposed of it to 

 DONOVAN for the sum of eighty-three guineas.Jlt is now deposited in the 

 British Museum. 



