GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOIVL. 159 



coverts, which are grayish buff instead of nearly black, and the 

 subterminal black bands on the tail are nearly twice as broad. 

 C. rufus, an inhabitant of South Africa, below the tropic of 

 Capricorn. May be readily distinguished from the Cream- 

 coloured Courser when adult by the black on the belly, and at all 

 ages by the colour of the middle secondary, which is white, 

 except the basal two-thirds of the outer, and the basal third of 

 the inner webs, which are brown. 



Time during which the Cream-coloured Courser may 

 be taken. —August ist to March I St. 



Habits. — Although I have spent some time amongst country 

 where Canon Tristram informed me he had met with this species, 

 I never had the good fortune to catch even a glimpse of the 

 Cream-coloured Courser. It is one of the thoroughly charac- 

 teristic birds of the desert, frequenting the sand-hills and ridges 

 where scarcely a blade of vegetation struggles for life in the bitter, 

 ungenerous soil. I was informed that its favourite haunts were 

 amongst the sand-dunes, and on the wide, sun-scorched, arid 

 plains, and that it rarely or never frequented scrub, but dwelt in 

 the open. It is said to be usually met with in pairs; but after the 

 breeding season is over, broods and their parents keep company, 

 and in winter they become more gregarious, roaming about the 

 desert in flocks of varying size. It is a thorough ground bird, 

 apparently with a great disinclination to take wing, always 

 seeking to evade pursuit by running with great speed, and 

 squatting close to the ground, or concealing itself by seeking 

 the shelter of a bush or a stone. Here its buff-coloured plumage 

 harmonises so closely with the colour of the ground, and it 

 remains so still, that discovery is almost impossible. No one who 

 has not witnessed the truly marvellous way in which desert birds 

 can conceal themselves on sand almost as level as a billiard-table, 

 can have an idea how closely these creatures assimilate with 

 surrounding objects. The Cream-coloured Courser is said 

 usually to run for a little way before taking wing, and seldom to 

 fly very high above the ground. When in flocks the birds cover 

 a wide area of ground, scattering themselves over the desert 

 in their quest for food. The note of this bird, at least 

 when in confinement, is said by Favier to resemble the syllables 



