132 
allen’s naturalist’s library,' 
counties of England, mostly from the south, but the specics 
has also been met with in Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Noith- 
umbcrland, and Cumberland. 
Range outside the British Islands.— The Cream-coloured Courser 
is a bird of the deserts of the Mediterranean Sub-region, 
and the Canary Islands, on one of which, Fuerteventura, it 
is so plentiful that hundreds of its eggs have been cohected 
there during recent years. It is found as far south as Ivordo- 
fan in Africa, and thence extends through Arabia to Persia 
and Central Asia and North-western India. 
Hahits. — In Colonel Irby’s “ Ornithology of the Straits of 
Gibraltar,” one of the most interesting notes is that on the 
Cream-coloured Courser, as recorded by the French naturalist 
P'avier, whose MSS. Colonel Irby saved from oblivion. The 
latter writes ; — Their food is entirely insects or larvce, parti- 
cularly Peniatoma torquata, and different kinds of grasshoppers. 
They are met with in small parties, usually frequenting dry 
arid plains, where they spread out in all directions, running 
after insects, and are very wary and difficult to get a shot at. 
Their cry of alarm is much like that of the Plover. They rest 
and sleep in a sitting position, with their legs doubled under 
them. Should they not fly away when approached, they run 
off with astonishing swiftness, manceuvring to get out of 
sight behind stones and clods of earth, there, kneeling down 
and stretching the body and head flat on the ground, they 
endeavour to make themselves invisible, though all the time 
their eyes are fixed on the object which disturbs them, and 
they keep on the alert ready to rush off again if one continues 
to approach them.” P'avier kept more than one in confine- 
ment, and obtained thirty-six eggs, which, until the recent in- 
flux of specimens from PMerteventura, were almost the only 
genuine ones in collections, 'lire only note which he heard 
the species utter he renders by the word "rererer." It will 
be noticed that the method of concealment adopted by the 
Courser is not unlike that practised by the Thick-knee. 
jfggt. — None, the eggs being laid in a little depression 
among stones, which closely resemble them. 
Eggs. Two in number, stone-colour in general appearance, 
thickly mottled all over with brown dots and scribblings, some 
