Winter breeding and distraction display of the Cream-coloured Courser Patrick Triplet& Pierre Ysou Triplet,P. & Y•sou, P. 1994. Winterbreeding and distractiondisplay of the Cream-coloured Courser. Wader Study Group Bull. 72: 32. One pair of Cream-colouredCourser Cursorius cursor laid in Decemberin Senegal,the first breedingrecord for the speciesduring the winter(October-January) period. The distraction displayperformed by this pair consisted in falsenest-scraping, crouching and mock-brooding, as shownby EgyptianPlover Pluvianus aegyptius. Triplet,P. & Y•sou,P., CNERAA vifauneMigratrice. Office National de la Chasse,53 rue Russell, F-44000 Nantes. France. On 12 January1994 we observeda pairof Cream- secondyoung: we were ready to go to it when it stoodup coloured Cursoriuscursor with a chick between Ndiaye again showingthat it was, however,still luring us. This andTidem (16 ø 05' N, 160 10'W) in Senegal,at the very stratagemlasted for about 10 minutes,during which time south-westernlimit of the speciesbreeding range. The the birds movedin variousdirections, coming up to 20 m chick was no more than ten days old, thus laying must from us, but always at the oppositeof the chick. We then have occurredin the first half of December. The species decidedto leave them in peace and leftthe area. layingdate is knownto vary from February-Mayto April- Septemberaccording to the area, with the onlypublished This behaviourrecalls the displacementbrooding used by recordsfor Mauritaniaand Senegal in April-May(Cramp & Burchell'sCourser C. rufus (Urban eta/. 1986) and, Simmons 1983; Urban etal. 1986; Morel & Morel 1990). particularly,the distractiondisplay of EgyptianPlover Our recordthus fell well outsidethe usual breedingperiod P/uvianusaegyptius which includes making false nest- and occurredin the coolestpart of the dry season. scrapes,crouching and mock-brooding(Cramp & Simmons 1983). Such ethologicalsimilarities reinforce The distractiondisplay performed by this pair differed the close but stilldebated taxonomic relationships markedlyfrom the open wingsand fannedtailed posture between these two genera. and injury-feigningtype behaviourmentioned for this speciesby Cramp & Simmons(1983) and Urban et al. (1986). REFERENCES When we were at c. 20 m from it, the sandy-coloured Cramp,S. & Simmons,K.E.L. 1983. The birdsof the Western chickcrouched down in a partlyvegetated area and Palearctic. Vol. III. Oxford UniversityPress, Oxford. stayed remarkablyconcealed. Then the parentsflew c. Morel,G.J. & Morel M.Y. 1990. Les Oiseauxde S•n•gambie. 60 m away to a large area of bare sand where they began ORSTOM, Paris. to movein a directionopposite to the chick,watching us all the time. After a few tens of metres they stood stillfor Urban, E.K, Fry C.H. & KeithS. 1986. The birdsof Africa. Vol. II. sometime, facingus in an erect posture. Then one Academic Press, London. individualmade as if to sit on a nest, althoughwith exaggeratedscraping movements which put a lot of dust in the air, all to time lookingat us withoutany head movementtowards the would-be egg or chick under it. It maintainedthis positionfor 5-10 seconds,then stoodup, keepingthe legsfolded and the neck hunchedfor a similar durationbefore performing its pseudo-scraping/incubation displayagain for some seconds. As we did not move,the pairwalked closer to us, stopping every 5-10 m. At each stop the birds stayed erect, motionless, for at least one minute before one individual, apparently always the same, resumed for 2-3 times the imitationof a bird sittingon a nest. On one occasionit stayedstill and relaxedfor a longerperiod, sufficient to make us believethat it couldhave really been protectinga 32 .