222 GAME-BIEDS OF INDIA 



belief, extend further than the Kadar of the Jumna. In Meerut 

 I have killed both the Houbara and the Likh ; but it is only when 

 you get quite down into the Kadar of the Ganges at Hastinapur and 

 JMakhdumpur, or, again, southwards below Garhmuktesar, that you 

 meet the true Florican, and here we used to pick up a few couples 

 every cold season. 



" This species has been recorded from Tipperah and Sylhet ; but 

 Capt. Williamson tells me he has never seen it in the latter, and both 

 he and Mr. Inglis say the same as regards Cachar. 



" This Florican is essentially Indian, and extends, so far as we 

 know, nowhere beyond the limits of the Empire. It is possible, 

 however, that it may hereafter be found to occur in the country 

 immediately east of Assam." 



To this, in a footnote, Hume adds that it is certainly to be found 

 as far west as Nuddea. 



Eoughly speaking, this beautiful bustard is confined to the grass- 

 land area north and east of the Ganges and on either side of the 

 Brahmapootra ; outside of this it is but a straggler. My furthest 

 record south-east is from the district of Chittagong ; whilst in the 

 Assam Valley it extends to the extreme eastern limit of the grass- 

 lands and churs bordering the Dihong, Dibong and Brahmapootra 

 Rivers, running right up to the very foot of the hills, both to east 

 and north. It is found in the Terai in some numbers, wherever the 

 country is suitable ; and in the same way throughout the Dooars, 

 south of Nepal and Bhutan. In Assam it is common in many 

 districts and extends all through the Assam Valley from Rungpur 

 and Goalpara to Dilirugarh. From the Surma Valley it is shut out 

 by the Garo, Cachar and Khasia Hills ; and though it is common in 

 parts of Nowgong to the north of these ranges, it is of extreme 

 rarity anywhere to the south of them. I have shot three birds, all 

 young females, in Cachar, and have seen two specimens from Sylhet. 

 Hume records it from Tippera in 1902, and, finally, I have received 

 a specimen from Chittagong. But these few instances are scattered 

 over a period of over twenty-five years, and merely emphasize the 

 fact of its great rarity south of the Brahmapootra Valley. 



As Colonel Graham gave such a detailed account of the numbers 

 in which the Florican was to be found in former times in each 

 Assam district, it may be as well here to give also an idea as to how 

 it is now distributed. Colonel Graham writes : — 



