ally a great pedestrian, seldom using his powerful wings except
to escape from danger, or to go to and from his feeding ground
at morn and eve, or to change it when he has exhausted a beat.
" This species is silent and tranquil, and except in the breeding
season, seldom utters a sound, but if startled, its note is a shrill
metallic chik, chik-chik, and the more ordinary note is the
same but softer and somewhat plaintive."
In the cold season, I have most commonly found it in the
neighbourhood of large rivers, the Ganges and its affluents on
the left bank. Open turfy spaces, sprinkled with tufts of rushes,
such as occur every here and there in the midst of wide stretches
of Jliao (Tamarix indica) jungle are favourite haunts, as are
patches of recently burnt grass, where the new tender shoots are
just sprouting. If not fired at, they will almost always return
1 0 the spot whence they were flushed, if not at once, at any rate
before next morning, and when beating for Parah (Hog-deer) on
the banks of the Ganges, I made it a rule never to fire at a
Florican unless he rose w ithin a reasonable distance, as, if not
fired at, he was sure to be found next day within a short distance
of the place at which he was flushed.
Florican are, I think, almost the fattest birds one shoots, and
certainly amongst the best birds for the table with which India
furnishes us. Whether it is on account of their excessive fatness
and their somewhat smaller size, or what, I do not know, but the
Florican is by no means such a difficult opponent to a good Falcon
as is the Houbara. A good Shaheen will cut a Florican down with
a slanting dash almost as soon as it is up, and before it has time
to drop, which it always tries to do directly it catches sight of the
Falcon. The prettiest hawking I ever saw was in 1852, in the
Tarai between Pilibhit and Khairagarh, with some Falcons
belonging, I think, to the Nawab of Rampur. A Shaheen
trained to keep up in the air at an elevation of about 30 yards,
circled and hovered above us; the tract was turfy, with little
patches of rush and flag, green but not swampy ; the beaters
walked in a close silent line a few yards in front of us ; three
Florican were successively flushed, at the very feet of the men,
and cut down by this one Falcon, almost before the quarry knew
it was pursued. Several other birds were intermediately flushed,
and two or three black Partridges killed, but the Falcon never
attempted to strike at anything that was not flushed quite close,
so as to be withifi reach of her direct stoop.
From Assam I have received a number of most interesting
notes in regard to this species, which are the more welcome
in that heretofore scarcely anything has been recorded in connection
with the Florican in that Province.
Colonel Graham writes :—" The Bengal Florican may be said
to extend throughout the Assam Valley, from the Manas River,
on the west, to the Mishmi Hills, east of Sadiya, on the
cast
" It is found in greatest numbers in high and dry open lands,
the places most frequented by it being the large Bishnath
plain and the higher lands lying between the Government
Trunk Road on the north of the Brahmaputra, and the hills
throughout the Darrang districts.
" North of Mangaldai, in Darrang, about five miles from the
Bhutan Hills, at a staging bungalow, well named Shikar, I shot
fourteen Florican in one day.
" The Florican is also found on the Sadiya plains in fair numbers,
and on the chars of the Brahmaputra, but is much
scarcer on the south bank of that river.
" On the Bishnath plain and other places in the Darrang
district, I have seen, I am sure, from 30 to 40 Florican in a day.
" In October and November the bird is often found on the
high strips of ground near to paddy fields, or even in the
paddy, feeding on its blossom, while later on in January it is
found in the mornings and evenings in the mustard crops then
in flower; but during the day it retires to its favourite high
lands.
" Burnt grass lands it also much affects, and while there, I
have found its crop full of insects, and even little bits of burnt
grass or seed.
" Taking Assam as a whole, I should say of the Florican ; —
" In Darrang, very common.
" In Kamrüp and Goalpara, a good sprinkling.
" In Nowgong, Sibsagar, Lakhimpur, here and there a fair
sprinkling, but as a rule scarce."
Captain C. R. Macgregor remarks:—"The Florican is called
by the natives the Ooloo Moora, or Peacock of the ooloo grass.
" In June and July, and sometimes as late as August, I
have repeatedly witnessed the performance of the 'nuptial
dance' by the cock-bird in full plumage. The bird rises from
the ground and hovers with extended wings from 10 to 20 feet
in the air, and thus attracts the female birds who may be within
an easy distance. Twice I have noticed this dance in the evening
after the sun has gone down when returning from shooting under
the Daphla Hills. The Florican generally breeds in the higher
plateaux of the Assam Valley, near the foot of the hills. The
males have been seen also by Major Cock in full plumage in
the month of May.
" I have shot Florican beyond Sadiya under the Abar hills,
on the chars of the Brahmaputra between Sadiya and Pulia,
notably on the " Lalli Chapori," under the Naga hills in thé
vicinity of Jaipur, near Dibrugarh, on the Bishnath plain, and
along the whole country extending from Tezpur in the Darrang
district up to north Lakhimpur.
" I have noticed that Florican generally seem to come to the
same place year after year. They generally frequent the
"ooloo" grass; but I have often found them in the "ekra" after