6980 Birds. 



almost as finely pointed as that of a humming-bird ; and those which make the 

 nearest approach to it, as some among the smaller Tringae, want the accompaniment 

 of length of limb — that unusual development of tibia and tarsus — to enable them to 

 wade to a sufficient distance from the shore. The bird was first noticed by an intelli- 

 gent lad, the son of a small farmer of the name of Pearson, while driving the cows 

 home to be milked in the evening. It was then standing nearly up to its belly in the 

 water, and rapidly extracting the insects from the flowers, or, as the boy supposed, 

 picking the petals themselves. It allowed him to approach within twenty yards before 

 it took flight, when it extended its long red legs behind it, after the manner 

 of a heron, and, alighting again on the opposite bank, immediately recommenced 

 wading out to the water-plants. Young Pearson then hastened home to his father, 

 who lives at a short distance from the pond, and the latter, hurrying to the spot with a 

 loaded gun, found the bird employed as before among the flowers of the water crow- 

 foot. But it was now exceedingly shy and wary of the gun, flying from one side of 

 the pond to the other, before Pearson could get within shot (but never uttering any 

 cry or sound), so that at last he found it necessary to resort to stratagem, and 

 to endeavour to " stalk " the bird. This a newly-made ditch and bank, one extremity 

 of which approaches within a few yards of the water's edge, enabled him to do suc- 

 cessfully. Ou raising his head above the bank, just before he fired, he perceived the 

 stilt within twenty yards of him, knee-deep in the water, in the midst of a cloud of 

 gnats and midges, at which he was snapping right and left, much after the manner 

 (to use Pearson's own simile) of a dog when teased by the flies in hot weather. The 

 bird, fortunately but little injured by the shot, was brought to meon the following 

 morning, and, on subsequent dissection, proved to be a female. The ovarium 

 contained several eggs, the largest of which was about the size of a pea. The stomach 

 was crammed with beetles and gnats in a half-digested state ; the elytra of the former 

 showing that diff"erent species had been captured. After the first pleasurable sensa- 

 tions on possessing and examining in the flesh a perfect specimen of so rareTa visitor 

 had passed away, I could not help being struck with the remarkable tenuity of the 

 tips of the mandibles, as well as by the more obvious peculiarity from which the bird 

 has derived its name (the extraordinary length of its legs) ; but after listening to the 

 simple story of George Pearson and his son, I perceived that the mystery was solved, 

 and that here was a new instance of the wonderful adaptation of means to an end, of 

 structure to habits, such interesting examples of which are continually presenting 

 themselves to the observant naturalist. — A. E. Knox ; in the ^ Ibis,' i. 395. 



Occurrence of the Cream-coloured Courser at Braunton Burrows. — While shooting 

 on Braunton Burrows, about ten days ago, I observed a pair of strange birds in the 

 air flying round one of the large ponds left by the recent rains: after a little while 

 they settled on the margin of the pond; they were then about three hundred yards 

 from me : by keeping out of sight behind the sand-hills I was able to get within a 

 hundred yards of them, and I was greatly surprised, on looking over the brow of the 

 hill, to see a fine pair of the cream-coloured courser {Cursorius IsabeUinus), one an 

 adult male in splendid plumage, the other a female or young bird of the year in im- 

 mature plumage ; they were accompanied by a single lapwing, which kept inces- 

 santly getting up and flying over their heads screaming, which caused the birds to be 

 wild. I waited about half an hour behind the hill, in the hope that they would walk 

 within shot, but they were wise and would not, so I tried to walk within shot of them, 

 as I found sitting-still rather unpleasant, particularly as the day was exceedingly 



