208 THE BIEDS OF DETOX. 



when hard boiled. Although when looked at in the hand 

 a Lapwing is a bird of conspicuous colouring, on one occa- 

 sion, when watching a flock, feeding on a newly-ploughed 

 field, from behind a hedge not far off from the birds, we were 

 surprised at their sudden disappearance without our having 

 seen them fly away, and then discovered that in certain 

 positions relative to the light they were perfectly invisible 

 and remained so till they changed their place again. 



Cream-coloured Courser. Cursorius galUcus (Gm.). 



An accidental visitor, of very rare occurrence, in spring and autumn in 

 the iiortli of the county. 



The Cream-coloured Courser, as the colour of its plumage indicates, 

 belongs to the desert type, and is only found on the sandy wastes of Xorth 

 Africa and Asia and on a desert island of the Canary Group. So closely 

 does it harmonize in the tints of its plumage with its surroundings that it 

 becomes quite invisible when it squats upon the ground, over which it 

 runs with great rapidity in search of insects, and is said to be particularly 

 fond of grasshoppers. It is nowhere numerous, and is a very wary bird, 

 difficult 10 approach. It very rarely comes north of the Mediterranean, 

 so that it is remarkable that so many examples of its occurrence, perhaps 

 thirty or more, should have been recorded from various parts of the United 

 Kingdom. Of these Devonshire and the "West Country can lay claim to 

 a full share. In the last week of October 1850 we chanced to go into the 

 bird-stuffer's shop in Barnstaple, and found lying on the counter a Cream- 

 coloured Courser in the flesh, which we ascertained had been sent in from 

 Jiraunton, where it had been shot by the Vicar, the Ilev. J. W. 11. Landon. 

 Another was in company with it, and this second bird was shot a few days 

 later by a farmer at iSraunton, sent into Barnstaple for preservation, and 

 came into the bird-stuffer's possession. "We were informed that it was a 

 very beautiful specimen ; unfortunately, we had left North Devon, and so 

 missed seeing it. The bird-stuffer advertised it in the ' Field,' and 

 eventually sold it for £\() for the collection of the Prince of "Wales. We 

 have, however, ascertained that this specimen does not now exist at 

 Sandringham. "^'e carefully examined the first of these two Coursers, and 

 considered it to be an adult ; the scutellse of the legs were very iridescent, 

 having somewhat the appearance of a snake's skin ; but this, as the 

 weather was extremely close at the time, may have been due to incipient 

 putrefaction. In March 1860 ^Mr. G. F. Mathew, R.X., was Snipe- 

 ishooting on the Braunton Burrows, when he observed a pair of strange 

 birds in the air, flying round one of the large shallow ponds left by the 

 recent rains, which after a while settled on the margin of the pond, at a 

 distance from him of about three hundred yards ; and he was greatly 



