SYPHEOTIS BENGALENSIS 225 



" The pi'ocreative instinct having been satisfied, the female retires 

 into deep grass cover, and there, at the root of a tluck tuft of grass, 

 with very little semblance of a nest, she deposits two eggs, never 

 more or less, unless the first be destroyed. If the eggs be handled in 

 her absence, she is sure to discover it and to destroy them herself. 

 The eggs are of the size and shape of an ordinary domestic fowl's, but 

 one generally larger and more richly coloured than the other. 



" The female sits on her eggs about a month, and the young can 

 follow her very soon after they chip the egg. In a month they are 

 able to tly ; and tliey remain v?ith the mother for nearly a year, or 

 till the procreative impulse again is felt by her, when she drives oft' 

 the long since fully-grown young. Two females commonly breed 

 near each other, whether for company or mutual aid and lielp ; and 

 thus tlie coveys — so to speak, though they are not literally such — are 

 usually found to consist of four to six birds. The Florican breeds but 

 once a year in June — July, that is, the eggs are then laid, and the 

 young hatched in July — August." 



Captain C. B. Macgregor also describes their dance as follows : — 



" In June and July, and sometimes as late as August, I have 

 repeatedly witnessed the performance of the nuptial dance by the 

 cock bird in full plumage. The bird rises from the ground and 

 hovers with extended wings from ten to twenty feet in the air, and 

 thus attracts the female birds who may be within an easy distance. 

 Twice I have noticed this dance in the evening after the sun has gone 

 down when returning from shooting under the Daphla hills. The 

 Florican generally breeds in the higher plateaux of the Assam valley, 

 near the foot of the hills. The males have been seen also by Major 

 Cock in full plumage in the month of May." 



Mr. Primrose, also, in writing to me, remarks : — 



" The male bird makes itself very conspicuous during the breeding- 

 season from its habit of rising a few feet into the air above the grass 

 and, after hovering a few seconds with quivering wings, again 

 dropping to earth. Whilst thus employed the birds are so taken up 

 with their performance that they are very easily approached and the 

 native pot-hunters take full advantage of them at this season." 



The first clutch of eggs I ever took with my own hands was found 

 for me by a Mikir, and shown to me on the 3rd June, 1904. These 

 two eggs were laid in a bare patch in an extensive field of sun-grass 

 close to a village, the cattle and buffaloes from which had regular!}' 

 fed over it. In consequence, the grass was neither very high nor 

 very dense and was intersected in every direction by small paths, 

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