LIMICOLÆ. OHARADRIIDÆ.
C u r so r iü s ‘ g a l l ic u s '(Gmelin*X
THE fHÓREAM-(ÜOL0 ÜBED COURSEE/
Çursorius Europoeus;
CtJRSORiTTg, Lathcmf. —Beak a -trifle' shorter th a n / i e head, straight to the
end of the nasal sinns, then decurved to the tip, which, is pointed.^ j^qptrih
oval. Tarsi long and slender ; toes, three only, alHh front, middle toe almost
as J®»g ag®in as the lateral toes; Wings long, ramer pointed ; the first and
second quill-feathers the longest in Hie wing.
The Cream-coloured Courses was first described by
Buffon from a specimen killed?;lfi^^ance, and to this', circumstance
it owes its specific name ; -but neither to- France,
nor indeed to any of ,the countries north of the? Mediterranean,
can the bird b,e "Considered as otherwise .than an
irregular visitant, although it is naturally mpre .frequent in
Southern than in Northern Europe.
* Charadrim gaßicus, Gmelin, Syst. “Nat. i. p. 692'(1788)’.
t |n,d. ;Orn. jj p. 751 (-17§0). ? s
The earliest occurrence on record of the Cream-coloured
Courser in England appears to bè that of the specimen shot
in 1785 by William Hammond» Esq., of StvAlban’s Court,
near Wingham, in East Kent, who presented the specimen ■
to Latham j with the-following a c c o u n t He first met
with it, running upon some-light land ; and so little fearful
was it, -that" after he had sent, for a gun; one was brought to
him, which having .been charged "some time', did .not readily
go off, and in consequence he missed his aim. The - report'
frightened the bird away; but after making a ^ tum o r two, it'
again settled within a .hundred yards of him, when ' he was
prepared with a second shot, which despatched it. I t was
observed to ru n with incredible swiftness-, and, at.intervals,
to pick up something from the ground ;' and was. so Jwpld as
to ‘render it -difficult -to make it rise from the. ground, in
order to- take a more «secure aim on the wing. .‘The note-
wasmot like tha t of any kind, of-Plover, nor, indeed, to be
compared with th a t .of a n j known bird.” * -(^yhöp. Birds,
Supp. I. p.'25d, pi. cxvmjro This example, which the plate -
shews , to be an immature, bird, passed into th e Leverian y
Museum, and having subsequently;been purchased by Donovan
for eightyi-fhree guineak,■ illfound its, way to the British*
Muséum*. . /
'fcäffcyftnext .instance is that! of/the: bird mentioned-by
Montagu (:8upp. Orh. Diet.) as having been s ^ | n 'North
WalesM1793, by Mr.,George Kingetonof -Queen’s ^ t e g e ,-5
Oxford, and"pjres,erved in the, collection o f the ïaite Professor
Sibthorp of thatpity, A third specimen,' recorded in Atkin-
son’s ‘^Compendium of 'British: Orhitholegy/ was ghot On
some dry fallow Aground near Wethetby, in Yorkshire, in
April, É816-; a fourth is 'said by Gould }(©; of Gt. Britain)
to*have been killed in the’same- county in: 1825- by-ohe^of'
Lord^Harewood’s keepers'; "and a fifth is - stated -to have
been abtamed-ut Holme/ near' Market Weight oh’, in 'th e
d|$feds not meil%ie.a,. butfrom tenor of\ Latham’s 'letter-,, ^ Jed
12tli December, 1785,' acknowledging,vtbe gift (communicated to Mr. Gould Iby-
Mr. W/O.cfiammond, the grandson, of th^donorp it would appear that the bird
was killed a short time previously.