324 GLAEEOLID^ CURSOEIUS 



Iris dark brown ; bill dusky ; legs and feet white. 



Length about 8-25 ; wing 5-25 ; tail 1-8 ; tarsus 1-9 ; culmen 0-9. 



The female resembles the male in plumage and measurements. 



A young bird is brownish above, somewhat mottled with black, 

 especially on the head ; no slaty-blue on the nape, or black or white 

 bands surrounding the nape patch ; the secondaries as in the adult ; 

 the tail is ashy, the tips of the feathers black with sandy spots 

 along both webs ; below, as in the adult, but the chin rather greyer. 



Distribution. — Burchell's Courser is confined to South Africa. 

 It is abundant on the high veld of the Colony, Natal, Orange Eiver 

 Colony and Transvaal, and appears to descend to the lower levels 

 occasionally. It has not been noticed, so far as I am aware, north 

 of the Limpopo except in one record — a specimen in the British 

 Museum labelled " Makalaka county," obtained by Bradshaw. 



Fig. 104. — Head of Cursorius rufus. x {^. 



This individual may quite possibly be wrongly labelled, and have 

 been really obtained on the Orange Eiver, where Bradshaw also 

 collected. 



The following are recorded localities : Cape Colony — Nelspoort 

 and Colesberg (Layard), Deelfontein, March and May, not common 

 (Seimund), Port Elizabeth (Eickard), King William's Town 

 (Trevelyan), Orange Eiver near Upington, January (Bradshaw) 

 near Hopetown, May (Atmore), and near Aliwal North, winter 

 (Whitehead), Kuruman (Bt. Mus.) ; Natal— Newcastle (Butler), 

 Mooi river, breeding October (Sparrow), Maritzburg (Eitzsimmons) ; 

 Orange Eiver Colony— Kroonstad (Symonds), Vredefort Eoad, April 

 (B. Hamilton) ; Transvaal — Potchefstroom, June and November, 

 Eustenburg, July (Ayres), Irene, November (S. A. Mus.), near 

 Johannesburg (Haagner). 



Hahit^.—BxriheWs Coarser is usually fouad in small flocks of 



