It more habitually erects its tail than any other species of
Bustard that I know, and Jerdon is quite correct in saying that,
as a rule, " walking or running it raises its tail, the lateral
feathers diverging downwards, while those of the centre are the
most elevated, as is seen in domestic fowls, &c."
Its flight much resembles that of the larger Bengal species,
but it is, I think, rather more rapid and not so strong.
I have never myself seen it hawked, but should fancy it
would fall an easy prey to a good Shaheen or Peregrine.
Jerdon says he has hawked it both with F.jugger and the
Shaheen, and that on one occasion he had slipped a Falcon
at one, when the Falcon, though in hot pursuit, being a little
behind, a pair of the Common Fagle {A. vindhiana) came down
from a vast height and joined in the pursuit. One of them
made a headlong sweep at it, which the Florican skilfully
avoided, but only to fall a victim to the other which stooped
almost immediately after its confederate, and dashed the quarry
lifeless to the ground with its back laid open for its whole length.
One of the very few specimens I obtained in the Etawah district
was killed in a similar manner by a Bonelli's Eagle (which
I shot) within 30 yards of me, and before I had had time to
fire at the Florican, which rose quite unexpectedly out of a
small patch of grass into which I had fired after a scuttling hare.
THE MAJORITY of the birds lay in September and October,
and in the regions into which I have already stated that they
migrate during the rains, but some still remain to breed in all
parts of Southern India, and a considerable number in the
Deccan, and Jerdon says: " I have put the hen bird off her nest
in August in the Deccan, and in October near Trichinopoly, and
have heard of the hen having been found incubating still later,
up to January indeed.
As to the nests, they are mere depressions, often mere spaces,
between tufts of grass.
Mr. Wenden, writing to me of two nests that he took, says :
" One nest was placed between the roots of several tufts of
tussock grass growing in black soil, and in the intermediate
space, the soil not being held up and protected by roots had
been washed out or had sunk from the effects of rain, and thus
a natural basin had been formed. In this the bird had excavated
a saucer-shaped hole, perhaps four inches deep and nine inches
in diameter, the bottom of which was bare. Round the edges
was a slight fringe of grass, which had not so much the appearance
of having been placed there by the bird for any purpose,
as it had of being simply scraped away from the actual sitting
place. The nest contained three eggs.
" The other nest, taken on the 19th September, was the only
one which I had an opportunity of watching. The eggs were
deposited on the bare ground, which was perfectly level (without
the least signs even of scratching), in some thin scanty grass,
about two feet high, and about two yards in from the edge of the
grass patch. Not a hundred yards from the plot of grass in
which the eggs were deposited was a preserve, over half a mile
long by a quarter broad, of very high dense grass, a far more likely
place, one would have thought, for so wary a bird to lay its eggs.
" On the 16th, I went out and watched this bird for more
than an hour, just about the time at which she had been flushed
on the morning before from the single egg. From the tree on
which I sat, with my binoculars, I saw her running rapidly out
of the dense preserve, across the open and into the scanty patch
in which was her egg. Here she moved about for some minutes
feeding, and every now and then she sprung into the air with
a low clucking cry, which was answered by the male bird from
the preserve, though at first I could not see him. Then, as
though a sudden thought had struck her, she darted to the nest,
and after one or two springs, and walking round and round the
egg, she squatted and deposited another. While she sat, she
was quite silent, but the male bird, who had now advanced closer
to me, kept springing in the air and crying continually. The
operation of laying the egg seemed to last about twenty
minutes,—i. e., from the time she sat to the time she rose—
and having made another spring or two and walked round the eggs
she then made straight tracks for the dense grass where the
male bird was calling.
" I went out quite alone on this watching expedition, and all
was quite quiet, and the birds were at their ease ; but while I
was still in the tree, a man came into the preserve with some
cattle, and then I saw both birds spring several times silently,
and after that I saw or heard nothing of them."
On the 18th another egg was laid, but on the 19th, finding
still only three, Wenden shot both parents and took the eggs.
Three or foul is the usual complement, but Lieut. F. Alexander
says that they sometimes lay five, and Mr. James writes that
he " once shot a hen Florican and picked up from where she rose
five young ones just able to run, two of which were carried
home, one soon died, but the other was successfully brought
up on grasshoppers till it was fully fledged. It was very tame,
and ran about the poultry yard fearlessly. Unfortunately it was
accidentally killed just after attaining maturity."
The eggs, like those of the Great Bustard (which, though
smaller, they greatly resemble), vary much in size, shape, and
colouration.
Typically they are very broad ovals, with a feeble tendency
to a point at one end ; but some are nearly spherical, some are
purely oval, while one or two approach a Plover shape.
The shell, everywhere closely pitted with minute pores, is
stout, but smooth, and has always a slight, and at times a brilliant,
gloss.