37 tf Ckaradriadce. 



servable, when I wandered into the desert on the banks of the 

 Nile. Several species of Chats, more especially Saxicola desertl 

 and S. isabellina, partook of this hue, but above all the ' Bush 

 Babbler ' (Crateropus acacice), of which I once shot two specimens 

 perched in an isolated ' sont ' bush, and though they both fell 

 quite dead on the sand beneath the tree, it will hardly be believed 

 that I searched for twenty minutes, and very nearly gave up the 

 search in despair, though they were both lying on the sand just 

 before me, so marvellously did their colours match with that of 

 the sand. Though I kept a constant look-out for the Cream- 

 coloured Courser when in its native land, and though it was occa- 

 sionally seen by some of my companions, I was never so fortu- 

 nate as to fall in with it. It is notorious for its surprising fleetness 

 of foot, as its name would lead us to infer ; and shows a strange 

 confidence, or rather carelessness, of man, so unusual in other 

 members of the family, to which I have already called attention. 

 Its cry of alarm is said to resemble that of the Plover ; it rests 

 and sleeps in a sitting posture, with its legs doubled up under it. 

 When disturbed, it will run off with astonishing swiftness, 

 rnano3uvring to get out of sight behind stones or clods of earth ; 

 then, kneeling down and stretching the body and head flat on 

 the ground, it endeavours to make itself invisible, though all the 

 time its eyes are fixed on the object which disturbs it, and it 

 keeps on the alert ready to rush off again if one continues to 

 approach it.* The name Cursorius, or ' runner/ is, as we have 

 seen, applicable enough, but Gallwus, as it used to be styled, was 

 most unfortunate, for it was bestowed upon it by Gmelin under 

 the erroneous impression that it only occurred in France. Still 

 more misleading is the name in use among the Maltese, who call 

 it the 'English Plover' (Pluviera ta I'Inghilterra), than which a 

 more inappropriate term could scarcely be devised. In North 

 Africa, where it is well known to the Arabs, they call it the 

 ' Camel Pricker/ Song el Ibel^ but on what ground I know not. 

 In France it is Court-vite isabelle, 'Sand-coloured Courser'; and 



M. Favier, of Tangier, quoted in ' Yarrell/ 4th edition, vol. iii., p. 244. 

 t Canon Tristam in Ibis for I860, p. 79. 



