i6o GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



rererer; and the same authority states that its alarm note is similar 

 to that of a Plover, which, all things considered, is a very safe 

 if a very unsatisfactory remark. The food of this species, so far 

 as is known, consists of insects and snails ; in confinement birds 

 have been fed, and apparently throve, on grasshoppers and the 

 larvae of beetles. 



Nidification. — Very little reliable information is as yet forth- 

 coming concerning the breeding habits of the Cream-coloured 

 Courser. The date of laying varies considerably. In the 

 Canary Islands young birds are said to have been obtained 

 towards the end of March ; in Algeria the breeding season is 

 given by authorities as May and June ; in Egypt Von Heuglin 

 says that it is in March and April ; and Hume informs us that in 

 the Punjaub district the bird lays principally in July, but ac- 

 cording to the state of the rains eggs may be obtained from 

 March to August. The first authentic eggs of this bird were 

 obtained by Canon Tristram on the Sahara. In Africa the nest 

 is said to be merely a hollow in the sand, which is either selected 

 ready made or scratched out by the parent bird ; but in India it 

 is sometimes made amongst stubble, under a bush, or amongst 

 jungle, and is a small hollow, about five inches across and two 

 inches deep, sometimes lined with a little dry grass. The eggs 

 are two or three in number, according to Hume the former number 

 being the regular clutch. They are pale buff in ground colour, 

 spotted, blotched, and freckled with buffish brown, and marbled 

 with underlying markings of gray. Those from the Punjaub 

 are decidedly smaller and darker than those from the deserts of 

 North Africa. They measure on an average i'2 inch in length 

 by i"o inch in breadth. The period of incubation and the number 

 of broods are unknown. At the nest this bird is said to be very 

 tame. 



Diagnostic Characters. — Cursorius, with the axillaries and 

 under wing coverts nearly black, and the outer web of the 

 secondaries buff. Length, 9 to lo inches. 



