430 



6 



a box, making a door at the side, lining the top and sides with cotton-wool, placing sand an inch 

 deep on the bottom ; this was warmed and dried by putting a charcoal brazier inside during the 

 day. I fed the birds on grasshoppers till November, when these insects became very scarce, and, 

 as each bird ate fifty daily, it was necessary to change their diet to the larvee of coleoptera, 

 which, after some reluctance, they began to take. This food suited them better than grass- 

 hoppers, the birds becoming fatter, at the same time eating less. They did well till January 

 when, the adult bird pining and refusing food, I tried to save it by cramming ; but this was 

 useless, as it died in February, and on dissection I found that death was caused by a very large 

 tumour in the stomach. ♦ It proved to be a female; and from the ovaries it appeared the season 

 for laying had passed. 



" The surviving bird continued well till the end of January ; then, appearing ill, I fed it by 

 hand till April, when, as the weather became warmer, it grew more healthy. I then shut it up 

 in a cage with a "White Turtle Dove. The Courser was the stronger bird, and did little else than 

 play with the Dove ; but they lived in perfect harmony. In May sexual desire was shown in a 

 very marked manner ; but unluckily the Dove was also a female. During the exhibition of this 

 passion the Courser used to make a noise which may be expressed thus, ' rererer.' 



"This continued till the middle of June, then entirely ceasing till the next year (1853), 

 when it resulted in the Courser laying eight eggs — the first on the 15th, the second on the 16th, 

 the third on the 30th May, the fourth on the 1st, the fifth on the 11th, the sixth on the 14th, 

 the seventh on the 23rd, and the eighth on the 25th of June. In 1854 she laid again, with the 

 same irregularity, twelve eggs — the first on the 17th of May, the last on the 28th of July. 

 Though in perfect health, treated and fed in the same way, she did not lay in 1855, but in 

 1856 laid two eggs on the 6th and 7th of July. In 1857 she again, at irregular intervals, laid 

 ten more eggs — the first in May, the last in July. In 1858 none were laid. In 1859 she pro- 

 duced four more eggs — the first two on the 6th and 7th of July, the others on the 9th and 10th 

 of August. 



" Shortly afterwards this bird, in perfect health, plumage, and vigour, was lost to ornithology, 

 owing to the war between Spain and Morocco ; for on the 25th of October I was ordered, with 

 other French subjects, to embark in the French war-steamer ' Mouette,' and not knowing when 

 I should return, and still less how to take care of my bird, I made up my mind to let it go ; but 

 it was so tame that it either would not or could not use its wings ; so, in my dilemma, I gave it 

 in charge of a Moor during my absence ; but, unfortunately, on my return in April 1860 I found 

 it had died." In Egypt, Von Heuglin writes, the breeding-season must be in March and April ; 

 for in May one sees young birds wandering about. 



The egg of this species was first known through Canon Tristram, whose notes were published 

 by Mr. Hewitson (Ibis, 1859, p. 79), who also figured the egg (pi. ii. fig. 3). These notes are as 

 follows: — "Although during the winter 1856-57 I penetrated several hundred miles into the 

 Algerian Sahara, and beyond its limits as far as between latitudes 31° and 30°, yet this bird only 

 once came under my observation, being evidently for the most part only a summer migrant to 

 those regions. In the month of June 1857 I twice met with small flocks of them on the Hauts 

 Plateaux between Biskra and Batna, to the south of Constantine. During the previous summer 

 of 1856 I had met with the bird several times in the western Sahara, north of Laghouat, and 



