SYPHEOTIS ADRITA 207 



time she sat to the time she rose, and having made another spring or 

 two 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." 



Mr. Davidson also describes this quaint habit at some length ; he 

 says : — 



" The Florican breeds all round Sholapur in consideralile numbers 

 wherever there are grass-preserves with long grass. During the 

 breeding-season they seem chiefly to haunt the thinnest patches of 

 long grass rather than those full of small bushes ; they are at this 

 period exceedingly difficult to flush, particularly the hens, which, even 

 if you succeed in forcing them to rise, get up only at your feet and 

 make but very short flights. The cocks are not quite so difllcult to 

 flush, but you are oliliged to run towards them to get even litem up, 

 if you simply walk after tliem they will rarely rise. Their where- 

 abouts are, however, generally easily discovered by their frog-like 

 call, and their occasional sudden jumps up into the air. They do not 

 seem to call much when the sun is bright, but chiefly in the morning 

 and during cloudy days. I have often watched them flying or jump- 

 ing, but I am still uncertain why they do it. My original impression 

 was that they sprung up to seize insects from the grass-stalks, but I 

 have long abandoned this idea, as they rise much above the grass. 

 Moreover, I have only seen one bird thus rise that could have been a 

 female, and this was dark-coloured, and probably a male that had not 

 assumed breeding-plumage, and I am inclined to consider these 

 sudden flights as simply one of those bridal displays so common in 

 the males, especially of gallinaceous birds, such as the flapping of the 

 wings in pheasants, the nauteh of the peacock, the lek of the Caper- 

 cailzie, and the pouch-inflated strut of the big Bustard, and if it can 

 1)6 certainly established that this habit is confined to the males no 

 alternative solution seems open to us." 



The Lesser Florican is generally said to be unlike most of its 

 family, in India at all events, in that it is monogamous, whereas the 

 others are either polygamous or " promiscuous," and the male is said 

 to remain yvith, or near the hen, even after incubation has begun. 

 Although this seems to be a generally-accepted fact, there are a good 

 many points which would seem to be against it, and personally I 



