COURSER. 105 
enumerate rabbits among- the animals introduced. The climate, indeed, 
would probably be too cold for them. 
If the Coulterneb is, however, a robber of rabbit-burrows, it is too 
formidably armed to allow of retaliation with impunity, and few birds 
or beasts dare venture to attack it in its retreat. Sometimes, however, 
as Jacobson tells us, the raven makes bold to offer battle ; but as soon 
as he approaches, the Coulterneb catches him under the throat with her 
beak, and sticks her claws into his breast till he screams out with pain 
and tries to g-et away ; but the Coulterneb keeps fast hold of him and 
tumbles him about till both frequently fall into the sea, where the raven 
is drowned, and the Coulterneb returns in triumph to her nest. But 
should the raven, at the first onset, g-et hold of the Coulterneb’s neck, 
he g-enerally comes off victorious, kills the mother, and feasts on her 
eg’g-s or her young-.** On St. Margaret’s Island, near St. David’s, we 
have seen the fishermen draw them out of their holes in a singular 
manner ; by introducing the hand into the hole, which is seized by the 
bird, who suffers himself to be drawn out rather than lo'ose his hold. 
In other places they are caught by ferrets, and the young are pickled. 
About the latter end of August they retire from our coast, and have 
all completely migrated by the beginning of September, together with 
the razor-bill and guillemots. 
At Dover, this, as well as the razor-bill, are indiscriminately called 
Willock, Coulterneb, Bouger, Mullet, Gulderhead, Bottle-nose, Pope, 
Marrot, and Sea-parrot. In the Orkney and Shetland Isles they are 
called Tamie norie. Tommy, and in the South of Scotland, Bass Cock, 
Ailsa Cock, Tom Noddy, and Cockandy. 
The egg is white, but is occasionaUy found obscurely speckled with 
cinereous, about the size of a hen’s ; their principal food is small fish, 
particularly sprats, with which they feed their young. It is not known 
to what parts they retire when they leave our coast, but they have been 
found in abundance in various parts of the southern and northern 
hemisphere. 
COURSER {CuTsorius IsahelUnuSi Meyer.) 
*Cursorius Europaeus, Ind. Orn. 2. p. 751. — C. Gallicus, Gmel. Linn. 1. 692. — C, 
Isabellinus, Emm. Man. d’Orn. 2d Edit. p. 513. — Linn. Trans. 13. p. 187. — 
Pluvialis Morinellus flavescens, Corrione biondo, Gerin. 4. t. 474. — Le Coure 
vite, Buff.S. 128. pi. Enl. 795. — Cream coloured Courser, Br. Zool. 1812. 2. 
p. 108. — Swift-foot, Selby. — Cream-coloured Plover, Gen. Syn. 5. p. 217. 25. 
Ib. Supp. 254. pi. 116. — Mont. Orn. Diet. 
Length ten inches. Bill three-quarters of an inch long, in shape 
not unlike that of the pratincole, but longer, and dusky black ; plumage 
^ Histoire Gener. des Voy. xix. p. 46; and Architecture of Birds, p. 37. 
