OTJRSOBIUS. 323 



Family CURSORIIDiE. 



Cursorius coromandelicus (Gmel.). The Indian Gowser. 



Cursorius coromandelicus (Gm.), Jerd. B. Ind. i\, p. 626; Hume, 

 Rough Draft N. ^ E. no. 840. 



The Indian Courser breeds commonly in dry, open, more or less 

 bare and moderately watered, tracts throughout Southern, Central, 

 and Central Northern India. Eastwards, in Bengal, Assam, &c., 

 it does not, I believe, breed, and occurs but very rarely ; while 

 westward, in Continental India, it is more or less entirely replaced 

 by C. gallicits. The latter does not stray much into tracts where 

 the rainfall exceeds 15 inches, whereas our present bird, both north 

 and south, belongs to the 15-to-45 inches zones and plateaux. 



I have found the nest twice in June, and once in the last week 

 of March. I believe, however, that the bird lays from March to 

 July. It scrapes a slight hollow in the ground, at times in a bare 

 plain ; oftener, I believe, under some tuft of grass or low bush, in 

 stunted, straggling, dry upland jungle, and in it lays two or three 

 eggs on the bare earth ; I have never seen any lining nor have I 

 known more than three eggs being found ; but my experience has 

 been limited. 



Mr. H. Wenden writes : — " A few of the Indian Courser breed 

 about Sholapoor in May and June chiefly, but some later on. 



" On June 30th, I found a nest of two eggs, hard-set, one with 

 a single fresh egg, and another with three fresh ones. 



" On July 4th I saw a batch of three young, and another of 

 two. 



" The eggs are deposited on the ground, without the slightest 

 signs of preparation in the shape of a nest, and in the barest and 

 most open plain." 



Dr. Jerdon states that " it breeds in a hollow in the ground from 

 March to May, laying usually three eggs of a pale greenish-yellow 

 colour, much blotched and spotted with black and with a few 

 dusky olive spots." 



Colonel C. H. T. Marshall remarks: — "There are few more 

 difficult eggs to find than those of this Courser, and unless I had 

 the advantage of going out nesting in March last with that 

 cleverest of all egg-finders, my friend the late Major Coclt, I should 

 not, I believe, ever have had the pleasure of taking these eggs. 



" The eggs, two in number (at least that is the most we have 

 ever found), are laid on the bare earth where there is no grass. 

 There is no pretension whatever to a nest, not even a depression in 

 the ground ; so like are they to their surroundings, that although 

 Major Cock placed Mr. Bingham and myself within three yards of 

 a couple of eggs, we were unable for some little time to make out 

 their whereabouts. The only chance of finding them seems to be to 

 - look out for a single bird moving out, as this will be in all probability 



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