534 CREAM-COLOURED COURSER. 
the same extent in France. Even to the south of the last, as well as 
to Spain and the mainland of Italy, its visits are rare and irregular, 
though somewhat more frequent in Sicily and Malta. In Bulgaria 
and the Dobrudscha this species is unknown, and it is only a 
wanderer to the steppes of South Russia. In the west its true 
home commences at the Canary Islands, on some of which the bird 
is numerous ; while eastward it inhabits Africa north of the Sahara— 
where Canon Tristram obtained the first eggs on record (Ibis, 
1859, p. 79, pl. ii, fig. 3); and southward it is found in Kordofan, as 
well as on both sides of the Red Sea. Through Arabia it can be 
traced to Persia, Baluchistan, Afghanistan and Northern India, but 
Dr. W. T. Blanford is doubtful respecting its asserted nesting in 
India proper. Other members of the genus inhabit portions of 
Asia and Africa ; the one most closely allied to the present species 
being a native of Somali-land. 
On Fuerteventura, Canaries, Mr. Meade-Waldo obtained young 
birds by March 23rd, on the barest parts of the desert, where the 
stones were mostly small ; and such was the abundance of the species 
on that island in 1891 that about a thousand eggs were taken for collec- 
tors, while at least double that number were destroyed. Most of the 
earlier eggs in European collections were, however, the produce of a 
bird which was brought to Favier of Tangiers in 1851 and laid 
them at irregular intervals until 1859. Their colour is stone-buff, 
marbled or freckled with brown and purplish-grey: measurements 
1°35 by 11 in. Theclutch consists of 2 eggs, and incubation seems 
to devolve upon the females ; the cocks either going about in little 
parties, or mixing with birds that are not breeding. The food 
consists of insects and small molluscs. The note emitted by the 
female is syllabled by Favier as rererer. 
The adult has the beak dark brown; irides hazel; forehead and 
crown of a sandy-buff, turning to grey and deepening to slate-blue 
margined with black on the nape ; from the eye to the nape a white 
streak, with a narrow black stripe below; upper surface generally 
sandy-buff ; quills, under wing-coverts and axillaries black ; under 
parts pale greyish-buff, gradually passing into white at the vent ; legs 
greyish. The sexes are alike in plumage. Length 10 in.; wing 
63 in. The young bird (in the background) is more rufous in tint, 
and has no grey or black on the nape, while the eye-stripe is buff 
instead of white; the feathers of the throat and the upper parts 
have dark crescentic markings. 
