294 CHARADRIIFORMES CHAP. 



breast, and the outer pair of rectrices white with broad black 

 ends ; G. melanoptera (nordmanni) of South-East Europe and "West 

 Asia, migrating to South Africa, has black axillaries and under 

 wing-coverts, as have the long-legged G. grallaria (isdbella) with 

 slightly forked tail and chestnut flanks, which breeds in Eastern 

 Australia and occurs from New Guinea to Borneo, and the small 

 grey-backed G. lactea of India, Ceylon, and Burma, with much 

 white on the wings. The other species have reddish feet, fading to 

 yellow ; G. cinerea, ranging from the Niger to the Congo, possesses 

 a rufous nuchal collar and white axillaries ; G. nuchalis of the White 

 Nile, and the hardly separable G. emini of Foda in Equatorial 

 Africa, have a white collar and grey axillaries ; G. megapoda, ex- 

 tending from Liberia to the Niger, shews a rufous collar and 

 grey axillaries. The last five forms, and G. ocularis, have the tail 

 merely emarginated. Pratincoles have a shrill, screaming note 

 and Swallow-like flight, insects, on which they feed, being ordinarily 

 captured on the wing ; but the general habits are those of Plovers, 

 the birds running very fast, and the parents often swooping down 

 upon an intruder, or cowering on the ground to draw attention 

 from their brood. They frequent sand-banks, lagoons, bare 

 plains, or coast-lands, laying two, three, or rarely four oval 

 greenish-buff or greyish eggs, with purplish -black, brown, and 

 grey marblings, without any nest, on the sun-baked mud. 



The genus Cursorius, or Courser, inhabits the hotter portions 

 of the Old World. C. gallicus, the Cream-coloured Courser, which 

 visits Britain and the southern half of Europe irregularly, is met 

 with in the Canary and Cape Verd Islands, North Africa, and the 

 countries from Arabia to Northern India. The brown bill is thick 

 and decurved, the whitish legs are long ; the plumage is buff, with 

 slaty nape, black remiges, axillaries, under wing-coverts, and sub- 

 terminal tail-bar ; the face is white with a black post-ocular streak. 

 Seldom found in flocks, this bird frequents dry sandy plains and 

 deserts, crouching to avoid notice, running with extraordinary 

 speed if approached, but rarely rising on the wing. The flight, 

 however, is at times protracted. The food consists almost entirely 

 of insects, such as grasshoppers, yet it includes small molluscs ; 

 the note is harsh ; while two, or exceptionally three, round stone- 

 coloured eggs with grey and brown markings are deposited on the 

 bare ground. The axillaries and under wing-coverts are greyish- 

 buff in C. somalensis, of Somaliland, but brownish-grey in C. 



