114 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



sub-terminal black bands on the tail are nearly twice as- broad. G. rufus, an 

 inhabitant of South Africa, below the Tropic of Capricorn. May be readily dis- 

 tinguished from the Cream-coloured Courser, when adult, by the black on the 

 belly, and at all ages by the grey hinder head and 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. 



Habits. — Although I have spent some time in the country districts where 

 Canon Tristram informed me he had met with this species, I never had the good 

 fortune to obtain even a glimpse of the Cream-coloured Courser. It is one of the 

 thoroughly characteristic 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 vsdth 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 vary- 

 ing size. It is a thorough ground bird, apparantly with a great disinclination to 

 take wing, always seeking to evade pursuit by ruiming with great speed and 

 squatting close to the ground, or concealing itself in 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 any 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, often skimming with extended motion- 

 less wings, or twisting and turning in an erratic manner. When in flocks the 

 birds cover a wide area of ground, scattering themselves over the desert in their 

 quest for food. They are then very wild, and very Lapwing-like in their general 

 movements. The note of this bird, at least when in confinement, is said by 

 Pavier to resemble the syllables re;-e?-er; and the same authority states that its 

 alarm note is similiar to that of a Plover, which, all things considered, is a very 

 safe if a very unsatisfactory remark. On the other hand, Mr. Whitaker describes 

 the note of the v?ild bird, uttered on the ground, as a short sharp meet, also as 

 weet-quoi ; whilst Mr. Meade-Waldo says that the cry, when the birds are with 

 their young, is a low qua-qua. The food of this species, so far as is known, 

 consists of insects and snails ; in confinement birds have been fed, and apparently 

 have thriven, on grasshoppers and the larvae of beetles. 



Nidification — The pairing habits of the Cream-coloured Courser almost 

 exactly resemble those of the Great Bustard. It is a monogamous species, 

 pairing every season, but as soon as the eggs are laid the males apparently flock 



