250 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



in Moraysldre on 8th February, 1861 : it was shot at Westfield, 

 about four or five miles from Elgin, and when first seen was 

 along with a flock of wood pigeons in a turnip field picking the 

 tops of the plants. This bird, which is a very fine specimen, now 

 belongs to the collection of the Elgin Museum, where I have seen 

 and examined it. A fourth Little Bustard was seen in the same 

 county a few days after the last mentioned bird was killed. It 

 was observed on three or four different occasions, but was so shy 

 that it would not admit of a nearer approach than 200 yards. 



This species is catalogued by Mr E. S. Sinclair in his Birds of 

 Caithness, and referred to by Mr Shearer, who states in a paper 

 communicated to the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh, that 

 it has been only once observed in that county, but gives no par- 

 ticulars. I am not aware of the occurrence of the Little Bustard 

 in any of the western counties. 



GRALLA TORES. CHARADRIID^E. 



THE CREAM-COLOURED COURSER. 



CURSORIUS EUROPOSUS. 



A MALE specimen of this very rare bird was shot in a grass field 

 near Lanark by Charles Walker, Esq., of Braxfield House, on the 

 7th October, 1868. It was alone, and on rising, Mr Walker 

 remarked its flight to be somewhat dull and heavy, not unlike the 

 common plover when newly disturbed. 



Mr J. H. Gurney, Jun., to whom the body of the bird was for- 

 warded, has obligingly furnished me, through my friend Mr Harvie 

 Brown, with the following notes taken by himself on its dissection: 

 " In the throat was a small fly undigested; the tongue is narrow, 

 with the appearance of bristles at its base, acute, and seven-eighths 

 of an inch in length; the oesophagus three-and-a-half inches long, 

 its width inconsiderable, the proventriculus three-quarters of an 

 inch long. The stomach is of the ordinary shape, compressed, an 

 inch long, and seven-eighths in breadth; inner coat full of wrinkles. 

 The intestine only fourteen inches long; it varies in width. The 

 coeca, which arise at a short distance from the end, are about two- 

 and-a-quarter inches in length. The sternum closely resembles 

 that of a redshank." 



