Very rare 
visitant. 
218 GRALLATORES. CURSORIUS. SwIFTroort. 
This beautiful specimen, now in the possession of the Rev. 
T. Gisporne, of Yoxall Lodge, Staffordshire, was kindly 
lent to me for the purpose of enriching these “ Ilustrations ;” 
and I have thus been enabled to give a correct figure of this 
bird in the Second Series, in the situation that it properly holds 
in the systematic arrangement now adopted. It is one of our 
rarest visitants, the above being, as far as I can collect, the 
third instance only of its appearance in Britain. Of the two 
prior specimens, one was shot in Kent, near the seat of W11- 
114M Hammonp, Esq. and was sent to Dr Latuam* ; and, as 
the following account which accompanied it is particularly in- 
teresting, as being descriptive of its manners, I make no apo- 
logy for transcribing it :—“ It was first met with running upon 
some light land, and so little fearful was it, that, after hav- 
ing sent for a gun, one was brought to him, which did not 
readily go off, having been charged some time, and in conse- 
quence missed his aim. 'The report frightened the bird 
away, but, after making a turn or two, it again settled within 
a hundred yards of him, when he was prepared with a second 
shot, which dispatched it. It was observed to run with in- 
credible swiftness, and at intervals to pick wp something 
from the ground, and was so bold as to render it difficult to 
make it rise from the ground, in order to take a more secure 
aim on the wing. The note was not like any kind of Plo- 
vers, nor indeed to be compared with that of any known 
bird.” The other specimen is mentioned by Monracu, as 
having been killed in Wales, and was afterwards in the col- 
lection of the late Professor Stzruorr, of Oxford. Africa 
is the native region of this species, particularly the northern 
and western parts of that secluded country, where it inhabits 
the extensive plains of the desert. In Europe, even its ap- 
pearance is of the rarest occurrence, as there are only two 
* This specimen found its way into the Leverian Museum, at the sale 
of which it was purchased by FicuTEL, who afterwards disposed of it to 
Donovan for the sum of eighty-three guineas.*, It is now deposited in the 
British Museum. 
