STPHEOTIS BENGALENSIS 223 



" The Bengal Florican may be said to extend throughout the 

 Assam Valley from the Manas Eiver on the west to the Mishmi 

 Hills east of Sadiya, on the east. 



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 Eoad on 

 the north of Brahmapootra, 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 Sadi.ya Plains in fair numbers, 

 and on the churs of the Brahmapootra ; but it 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 thirty to forty Florican in a day. 



" Taking Assam as a whole, I should say of the Florican : — 



" In Darrang, very common. 



" In Kamrup and Goalpara, a good sprinkling. 



" In Nowgong, Sibsagar, Lakhimpur, here and there a fair 

 sprinkling; but, as a rule, scarce." 



At the present day the Florican is still plentiful in the Goalpara 

 district on the north bank, breeding in great numbers in the sun- 

 grass lands at the foot of the Bhutan Hills : from this district it 

 extends through Kamrup, Mangaldai, Darrang and Sibsagar, north 

 of the Brahmapootra, in considerable numbers wherever there are 

 the necessary plains of grass to be found. In North Lakhimpur 

 it becomes less common, though it will be found right up to the 

 foot of the Abor, Mishmi and Dafla Hills, east and north of Sadiya. 

 South of the Brahmapootra Eiver, though it is common in parts 

 of NovFgong, it is elsewhere rare. In Lakhimpur and Sibsagar a 

 fair number are shot annually south of the river ; but in Kamrup 

 and Goalpara it is decidedly rare on that bank of the Brahmapootra, 

 and it hardly ever straggles to the district of Mymensingh — which 

 adjoins the latter — though it is common in parts of the Rangpur 

 district to the north of the river. I should, however, note that 

 Farren recorded it as occurring not infrequently along the borders 

 of the Madhapore jungle in 1880. 



Both in Maldah and Purnea, where twenty-five years ago it was 

 common, it has now become much less so, principally owing to the 



