CREAM-COLOURED COURSER 109 
protective asset by running about, and drawing 
attention to itself by continually uttering its peculiar 
ery. And when it rises and flies off, as it frequently 
does, in little bands or parties, all utter the same 
note with incessant, noisy reiteration. I first saw 
this bird when riding across the desert towards 
Kosseir on the Red Sea, and I well remember my 
surprise at seeing how completely different was the 
position assumed by the birds to that which all 
the pictures with which I was familiar had led me 
to expect. It runs about very high on the legs, 
and every other moment lifts its body up nearly 
perpendicularly, looking sharply round right and 
left before again making another quick little run 
in search of some speck of food. It struck me as 
being a peculiarly cheery little bird, and seemed 
to be of a sociable nature, always being in little 
parties, and often when they all rose together they 
would be quickly joined by some others, who had 
been before out of sight, and together they would 
go wheeling about in mid-air, mounting high up 
into the sky, till the eye unaided lost sight of 
them, but all the time their whereabouts was 
certain, because of their most musical, reiterated 
cry, which somewhat resembles that of the Sand 
Grouse. 
