brownish fluid from its mouth, which soils its feathers 

 very much. I fancy that this is natural and voluntary. 

 Where the birds are most frequent this fluid may be 

 seen in patches ; and a pair of young ones that I kept 

 alive for three days ejected some of it when midis- 

 turbed and apparently at their ease. I think that I 

 should have succeeded in rearing this pair had it not 

 been that I could not spare time for the almost ceaseless 

 attention that they required. They ate flies, small 

 snails, and cochineal bugs, also small pieces of lizards. 

 They ran at a great rate, holding themselves very 

 upright, with their wings stretched out wide." 



The normal range of this bird extends from the 

 Canary Isles throughout North Africa, Arabia, and 

 Persia to ihe north-w^estern plains of Hindostan ; its 

 occurrences in Europe being, though not very rare, 

 purely erratic and accidental. Only two skins of 

 Cream-coloured Courser have been sent to me from 

 Spain during the twenty-five years that I have collected 

 the birds of that country ; these were killed in the 

 Marisma de Lebrija in August. For some interesting 

 details on the habits of this species in captivity and 

 freedom in Morocco I refer my readers to the notes of 

 Favier, of Tangier, as set forth by Colonel Irby in his 

 ' Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar.' 



