458 BUSTARDS, THICKNEES, AND CRANES 



lizards and snakes to young shoots and grass, coming amiss. They are, however, 

 generally more herbivorous than carnivorous, although when the country is overrun 

 with locusts they feed almost entirely on those noisome insects. Shy and wary in 

 disposition, the florican, except on the rare occasions when he is in thick covert, is 

 a diflEicult bird to approach within range, more especially as he is a strong fl.yer, and 

 will carry a heavy charge of shot without harm. Unlike a heron, a florican flies 

 with its head stretched out in front, and its legs tucked away beneath the body. 

 Except in the breeding-season, when they utter a kind of cluck, florican are silent 

 birds ; and they are almost peculiar in that the two sexes, even during the pairing- 

 time, live apart from one another in small companies. During the latter season, 

 the troops of males and females come into the same neighbourhood ; and when a 

 male wishes to attract a temporary partner, he does so by going through an 

 elaborate series of performances somewhat similar to the well-known pantomimic 

 display of the cock-turkey, although more prolonged and energetic ; the bird at 

 times rising perpendicularly in the air, and humming in a peculiar deep tone. The 

 female lays two eggs in an apology for a nest at the foot of a tussock in some thick 

 grass-jungle ; one ^^^^ being generally more richly coloured than the other. In 

 winter these birds become extraordinarily fat ; and at that season florican-shooting 

 in the valley of the Ganges and other districts is a favourite sport, which may be 

 pursued either on foot or from the back of an elephant." 



The Thicknees. 



Family (Edicnemid^. 



Although placed by many ornithologists with the plovers, the genus of birds 

 typically represented by the European thicknee or stone -curlew {(Edicnemus 

 scolopax) agrees with the bustards in the holorhinal skull, and the absence of a 

 process at the lower end of the humerus, as well as in the three-toed feet ; and we 

 may accordingly follow Dr. Ftirbringer in regarding the group as nearly allied to 

 the latter. Externally the thicknees difler from the bustards by the presence of a 

 tufted oil-gland, by the form and position of the nostrils, by the feet being webbed 

 to the second joint, and by the second, in place of the third quill of the wing being 

 the longest. Internally, they differ by the vertebrae of the back articulating by 

 cup-and-ball, instead of saddle-shaped surfaces, and thereby resemble the plovers. 

 Both have two notches on the hinder border of the breast-bone, and in both the 

 metatarsus is reticulated all round. In the thicknees the beak is of moderate 

 length, stout, and nearly straight, with a slight depression at the base, and the 

 ridge of the upper mandible prominent ; the long nostrils, which do not open in a 

 groove, being placed near the middle of its length. The wings are of moderate 

 length ; the tail is graduated and formed of twelve feathers ; and the legs are 

 rather long, with a small part of the tibia bare. In all the species the eye is 

 large, and the plumage mottled and striated with shades of buff and brown. The 

 European species, which measures from 16 to 17 inches in length, is especially 

 characterised by the conspicuous streaking of the breast ; the presence of a dark 

 bar across the lesser wing-coverts, and the white tips to the greater wing-coverts. 



