SYPHEOTIS AURITA 211 



and irregular, and are probably governed by the state of the rains 

 and food supply, and possibly by other factors not yet known either 

 to field-naturalists or scientists. At present, all that can be said is 

 that during the breeding-season the birds seem to concentrate in 

 suitable places in the centre of their habitat and after this season 

 is over to disperse, more or less, in all four quarters, stragglers 

 then appearing far from any of their favourite haunts. Hill-ranges 

 certainly divert and interrupt these local migrations to a great 

 extent wherever met with, and it is more than possible that the 

 bigger rivers, such as the Jumna, may have a similar effect. At the 

 same time, the Lesser Florican does surmount some hill-ranges, for 

 it migrates into the valley of Nepal, as already recorded, and it 

 has been shot on the Nilgiris as well. 



The Likh, or Lesser Florican, is not gregarious like those Bustards 

 with which we have already dealt. In suitable country, of course, 

 many birds may be met with in the same extent of grass-land, but 

 they will be found at some distance apart, never in flocks, and though 

 sometimes in pairs yet more often singly, except in the breeding-season. 

 This little bustard, according to Jerdon, "frequents long grass in 

 preference to any other shelter. It is, however, often to be met with 

 in green fields, in fields of cotton and dholl, and, in the Carnatic, so 

 much in those of the grain called warragoo, as to be called in 

 Tamil, Warragoo Kolee or Warragoo Fowl." 



All other writers agree with the above. Hodgson adds hill-rice 

 to the crops they frequent, and Hume says that they are often found 

 in millet-fields ; other sportsmen have written to inform me that they 

 have shot them out of bajra, Indian corn, wheat, and even young 

 sugar-cane. Inglis also informs me that in Behar they are sometimes 

 put up in the indigo-fields, which affords them good cover. 



In fact, the Likh may be found in any crop which is dry under 

 foot, not dense enough to make walking difficult and not too high ; 

 but, preferably, they keep to grass-land or to grain-fields into which 

 they are tempted to feed. 



Mr. Kyrle-Fellowes also records the shooting of one of these 

 Bustards in a wooded plateau six and a-half miles from Mahableshwar, 

 in small jungle near a pool of water. 



Unfortunately, the habit of the Likh dining the breeding-season 



