352 COURSER. 



A. —This Variety has the general markings of the former, but 

 the forehead as far as the crown, is darker than the rest ; sides of 

 the head, throat, and belly, paler ; behind the eyes an obscure mark; 

 tail much as in the former, but the ends very little paler than the 

 base, and not white. 



One of this curious, and rare species was shot near St. Albans, 

 in East Kent, the seat of William Hammond, Esq. on the 10th of 

 November, 1785, who presented it to me, with the following account: 

 he first met with it on some light land ; and so little fearful was it, 

 that having no gun with him at that time, he sent for one, which 

 did not readily go off", having been charged for some time, and in 

 consequence he missed his aim : the report frightened the bird away, 

 but after making a turn or two, it again settled within one hundred 

 yards of him, when he was prepared with a second shot, which 

 killed it. He observed it to run with incredible swiftness, considering 

 its size, and at intervals to pick something from the ground, and 

 was so bold, as to render it difficult to make it rise, in order to take 

 a more secure aim on the wing. The note was unlike that of any 

 Plover, nor indeed of any known bird. 



We are informed, in the Supplement to the Ornithological Dic- 

 tionary, that one of these was shot in North Wales, in the year 

 1793, and preserved in the collection of the late Professor Sibthorp, 

 at Oxford.* — I met with a specimen of this among the birds of Mr. 

 Salt, who obtained it in his last journey into Abyssinia. This was 

 shot on a sandy plain near the Tacazza River : the colour of the 

 plumage exactly suited to the desert, being as in the Desert Lark, 

 so much resembling the soil, as to elude the eye at a moderate dis- 

 tance. It is also found in the Island of Java, but the colours less 

 vivid, than in the European Specimens. 



* Mr. Atkinson, author of the Compendium of Ornithology, was also in possession of 

 one, shot at Netherby, in April 1816. 



