BUSTARDS. 457 



The hubara {Huhara undulata) of Northern Africa and the 

 nearly allied Macqueen's bustard {H. macqueeni) of Western Asia, 

 represent a genus characterised by the rather short legs, the lengthened and 

 basally depressed bill, and the presence of a ruff on the neck and a crest on the 

 head ; the latter appendages being larger in the male than the female. Breeding 

 in Turkestan and South- Western Siberia, as well as in Afghanistan and Northern 

 Persia, Macqueen's bustard ranges during the winter into North-Western India 

 and Southern Persia, from whence a few individuals straggle into Eastern and 

 Central Europe. In India this species usually makes its appearance in September, 

 departing again with the commencement of the hot season at the end of March or 

 beginning of April. During its sojourn there it may be met with in pairs, or 

 even solitary, although far more generally in small flocks ; its favourite haunts 

 being barren plains dotted here and there with small patches of covert. It is a 

 silent bird, and chiefly a vegetable feeder ; although its African cousin is said to 

 be insectivorous. Preferring running to flying, Mr. Hume states that Macqueen's 

 bustard, when on an open plain, has a habit of squatting close to the ground 

 beneath a protecting bush or stone, and is at such times invisible even to a 

 practised eye. Directly, however, it reaches taller covert, it raises itself to its 

 full height in order to have a good view of its pursuers. In districts where camels 

 are commonly employed, these birds are easily approached by a gunner mounted 

 on one of those animals. 



Nearly allied to the bustards are the Indian birds known as 

 floricans, of which there are two species, namely, the Bengal florican 

 {Sypheotides bengalensis), and the lesser florican (S. aurita). They are charac- 

 terised by the moderately long, arched, and somewhat broad beak ; the long legs, 

 in which a considerable portion of the tibia is bare ; and by the males (which are 

 smaller than the females) undergoing a second moult in spring, after which the 

 plumage becomes mostly black, with more or less white on the wings, while either 

 a head-crest or ear-tuft is developed, and the plumes of the breast may become 

 much lengthened. The hen-birds and young males are coloured much after the 

 ordinary bustard type, and the former undergo no spring moult. In the case of 

 the lesser florican, the male of which has an ear-tuft in place of a crest, it is known 

 that the winter plumage of both sexes is alike, but there has been some doubt 

 whether this is so with the larger species, although it probably is. 



Florican are exclusively Indian birds, spending the whole of their time in the 

 country, although the smaller species makes seasonal migrations from one district 

 to another. The dark and conspicuous breeding-plumage of the male would of itself 

 be sufficient to indicate a difference in the habits of these birds from those of other 

 bustards. We find, indeed, it stated by Hodgson that although the Bengal species 

 dwells exclusively upon plains, yet it never frequents " nude or cultivated plains. 

 Shelter of nature's furnishing is indispensable to it, and it solely inhabits wide- 

 spreading plains, sufficiently elevated to be free from inundation, and sufficiently 

 moist to yield a pretty copious crop of grasses ; but grasses not so thick nor so high 

 as to impede the movements or vision of a well-sized bird that is ever afoot and 

 always on the look-out. In spite of the exquisite flavour for which these birds are 

 so famed, florican are by no means fastidious in their food, scarcely anything, from 



