3° 



THE ANIMALS OF NORTHERN AFRICA 



the presence of a pair of red fleshy knobs above the white shield on the 

 forehead. In addition to the true European bustard (Otis tarda) and the little 

 bustard (0. tetrax), there is an indigenous species in the shape of the African 

 rutted bustard (Hubara undulata), whose range extends from the Canaries through 

 northern Africa about as far east as Armenia. This species, which occasionally 

 visits southern Europe, differs from the hubara bustard (H. macqioeeni) not only 

 by its somewhat superior dimensions, but by the possession of a crest of long 



tfM$&A 



BLACK-BACKED COURSER. 



white feathers. None of the foregoing generic types is met with in Ethiopian 

 Africa. 



A specially interesting species is the black-backed courser, or, as it is often called, 

 black-headed plover (Pluvianus cegyptius) ; a bird so well concealed by its coloration 

 that at a short distance only three independent patches of grey are visible. The 

 crown and cheeks are black ; above the eyes is a black band which is continued 

 round the nape ; the beak is black and the throat white, while the under-parts are 

 cream-coloured, and the tail and wings grey, with a black bar and a white tip 

 to the former, and the quills of the latter white with a black band and tips. This 

 bird has not only the remarkable habit of picking out leeches and the grubs 

 of flies from between the teeth of the open jaws of crocodiles as they lie like logs 



