212 GLAEEOLIDvE. 



occiput, the grey feathers partly concealing a nuchal black patch ; 

 white supercilia, meeting behind the nape, and bordered throughout 

 beneath by a black band running from one eye to the other ; lores 

 and chin creamy white, sides of face buff ; upper parts generally 

 rufous buff; primary-coverts and primaries black, secondaries 

 blackish on the inner webs, tipped with white and bordered 

 externally with rufous buff, which gradually grows broader on the 

 inner feathers ; tail-feathers like back, all, except the median 

 pair (which have sometimes a sub terminal black spot), with a sub- 

 terminal black band and white tip ; lower parts buff, paler and 

 less rufous than the back ; lower abdomen and under tail-coverts 

 white ; wing-lining and axillaries black. 



Young birds sandy, with many black bauds throughout, paler 

 below. 



Bill black ; legs yellowish white (Jei'don). Iris umber-brown 

 (y. Heuglin}. 



Length 10 ; tail 2'5 ; wing 6*5 ; tarsus 2'25 ; bill from gape 

 1-4. 



Distribution. Dry barren tracts of Southern Europe, Northern 

 Africa, and South-western Asia, as far east as Baluchistan, 

 Afghanistan, and North-western India. This species is found 

 in the Punjab, Sind, Rajputaua as far east as Ajmir, Jodbpur, 

 and Erinpura, and in Cutch. 



Habits, Sfc. Very similar to those of G. coromandelicus. The 

 eggs resemble those of G. coromandelicus in number and size, but 

 are much paler, light stone-coloured, thickly, rather finely spotted 

 with brown and pale lilac. It is doubtful whether this bird breeds 

 in India, there being evidently some mistake about the eggs found 

 near Sirsa, and formerly attributed to this species by Hume. 



Genus RHINOPTILUS, Strickland, 1850. 



This is almost entirely an Ethiopian genus, no less than seven 

 species being known from Tropical and Southern Africa, whilst a 

 solitary species, of great rarity, is peculiar to a small portion of 

 the Indian Peninsula. From Cursorius the present form is only 

 distinguished, by having the bill shorter than the head, straight , 

 and somewhat broader at the base, a rounder wing, with the 2nd 

 and 3rd primaries longest, and a band across the breast; the 

 differences being scarcely of generic value. The eyes are large, 

 and the bird may perhaps have crepuscular habits. 



1424. Rhinoptilus bitorquatus. Jerdons Courser. 



Macrotarsius bitorquatus, Jerdon, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xvii, pt. 1, 



p. 254(1848); id. Cat. p. 260. 

 Rhinoptilus bitorquatus, Strickland, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 220 : Jerdon, 



B. I. iii, p. 628 ; Blanford, Ibi*, 1867, p. 462 ; id. J. A. S. B. 



xxxviii, pt. 2 ; p. 190 ; Hume, Cat. no. 841 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. 



xxiv, p. 50. 



