174 CHARADRIID;E. 



QRALLATORES. CHARADR11DJE. 



PLATE CCXXI. 



CREAM-COLOURED COURSER. 



CTJRSORIUS ISABELLINUS. 



The Cream-coloured Courser is a very rare, accidental 

 visitant, not only in Great Britain, but in Europe altogether ; 

 three or four instances are on record of its capture in Eng- 

 land, and it has consequently obtained a place in the list 

 of British Birds. The information obtained from several orni- 

 thologists is, that this species inhabits most parts of Africa, 

 but respecting its habits nothing has as yet come to light 

 sufficient to enable us to enlarge upon it ; and from the 

 little we know of its habits, it appears very erroneously 

 placed among the water-birds, since every specimen that 

 has been captured in Europe was found on some sandy or 

 stony, barren waste ; in Africa it equally frequents such in 

 a more decided degree, namely, the wide deserts ; one speci- 

 men was met with on the European continent, on a sandy 

 beach by an inland sea or lake, and when found was in the 

 very act of drinking. 



The food of the Cream-coloured Courser consists in 

 insects and their larvae, but neither vegetable matter, seeds, 

 nor berries are supposed to contribute to its support. 



The length of the Cream-coloured Courser is ten inches, 

 the beak nine lines, the wing from the carpus to the tip 



