CREAM-COLOURED COURSER 
Cursorius gallicus 
General plumage a bright clear yellowish sand colour ; 
forehead a bright burnt sienna; crown of head a light lilac- 
grey; eyebrows white; eyes brown; legs white. Length, 
10 inches. 
Tuts is one of: the birds commonly selected as an 
illustration of “protective coloration.” It lives 
in the sandy deserts, and its plumage displays a 
curiously harmonious blending of the various 
colours to be found on the dry, stony, sandy soil. 
The very markedly contrasting colours of the head 
are just the very same that you see in the pebbles 
or stones, and the smoother passages of delicate 
buff and greyish-yellow are the counterpart of 
the curving slopes of pure sand; whilst even the 
startlmg enamel-like white of the legs resembles 
the bleached, hard, dry stalks of the desert vege- 
tation. When the bird crouches down it is 
practically invisible, though, as the phrase is, it 
may be “right under your nose,” but as a matter 
of fact it seems most often to perversely upset 
the whole value of what we men deem its valuable 
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