CUESORIUS. 211 



brown at the base, then black and tipped white, the white tips 

 increasing on the outer feathers till the outermost pair are white 

 throughout ; chin white ; throat passing into the rufous of the 

 neck and breast, which deepens gradually into chestnut on the 



Fig. 47. Head of 6'. coromandelicus. -J. 



lower breast and into a black patch on the upper abdomen ; sides 

 of breast and axillaries coloured like back ; lower abdomen with 

 flanks and lower tail-coverts white. 



Young birds are buff above, irregularly barred with black, 

 having a pale supercilium ; quills black ; breast dull rufous with 

 black markings ; chin and abdomen white. 



Bill black ; irides dark brown ; tarsus creamy white (Jerdon}. 

 The legs and feet have an enamelled or china- white aspect. 



Length 9 ; tail 2'25 ; wing 6 ; tarsus 2-1 ; bill from gape 1-1. 



Distribution. The Indian Peninsula from the base of the Hima- 

 layas, also the extreme north of Ceylon, on open dry plains away 

 from forest. Rare on the Malabar coast and in Lower Bengal, 

 and replaced in most parts of Cutch and Sind, and in the north- 

 west Punjab by the next species. 



Habits, fyc. This bird is generally seen running about quickly, 

 singly or in small parties, on open sandy or stony ground; its 

 movements being much like those of the Stone- Curlew or of 

 Bustards, and it lives on insects. It breeds from March to July, 

 and lays, on the bare ground, usually two, sometimes three eggs, 

 broadly oval, stone-coloured, thickly spotted and blotched with 

 black, and measuring about 1-19 by *97. 



1423. Cursorius gallicus. The Cream-coloured Courser. 



Charadrius gallicus, Gm. Syst. Nat. i, p. 692 (1788). 



Cursorius gallicus, Jerdon, B. I. iii, p. 874 ; Blyth, Ibis, 1867, 



p. 163 ; Hume, Ibis, 1868, p. 239 ; id. S. F. i, p. 228 ; Adam, ibid. 



p. 393; Butler, S. F. iv, p. 11; v, p. 232; Hume, Cat. no. 840 

 K bis : Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 324 ; id. Jour. Bom. N. H. Soc. vi, 



p. 16 j Seebohm, Charadr. p. 235; St. John, Ibis, 1889, p. 175; 



Gates in Hume's N. $ E. 2nd ed. iii, p. 325 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. 



xxiv, p. 34. 

 Cursorius jamesoni, Jerdon, B. I. iii, p. 875 ; Stoliczka, J. A. S. B. 



xli, pt. 2, p. 250. 



The European Courier Plover, Jerdon. 



Coloration. Crown light rufous, in front ashy grev on the 



* 



