40 SPORT IN BENGAL. 



ground near the Trunk Road, where it strikes that river, than 

 any other spot along this line up to the Sone. 



The floriken will very seldom be flushed at the present 

 day south of the Ganges, no matter how suitable the ground 

 may be, and the bastard floriken, or " likh," as seldom ; in fact, 

 neither should be calculated upon in the bag expected by the 

 sportsman, whether he beats on foot, or with a line of 

 elephants, in Bengal elsewhere than in Purneah, Maldah, the 

 valley of the " Purnobhaba " in Dinagepoor, and the " churs " 

 of Rungpoor and Mymensingh. A floriken may occasionally 

 be flushed in the Champarun, Durbhunga, and Bhangulpoor 

 districts, on the plains along the Terai, and now and again in 

 Dana and Bograh ; but, except as a rare visitor, it will not 

 be met with south of those districts, although they were by 

 no means uncommon formerly on the "churs" of the Bha- 

 girutty (Hooghly) river, as low down as Chogdaha. I have 

 never seen one on the " churs " of the Megna below Narain- 

 gunge, nor ever heard of one being shot below that place, 

 though why a stray bird or two should not occasionally visit 

 the grass plains and mustard-fields of those islets, which 

 resemble in every way their favourite feeding-grounds, only 

 a little further north, it is hard to guess. Probably as they 

 are being thinned they restrict themselves to their choicest 

 grounds in the Terai, in Assam, and in some parts of the 

 districts above named. 



There are three varieties of partridges in the lower 

 provinces the black, the grey, and the marsh, or " kyah ;" 

 the two former will be found among grass and bushes near 

 cultivation, and the last in tree and reed coverts, on river 

 banks, or round swamps, and frequently in considerable 

 numbers, as in Sylhet, where I have put up as many as fifty 

 in the course of an hour or two while shooting snipe in rice 

 fields, enclosed by reed jungle. The last variety, likewise, is 

 tolerably plentiful in certain parts of Maldah, Dinagepoor, 

 and Purneah. The black and the grey, it is said, will not be 

 found together in the same coverts or on the same ground, and 

 this may be so as the general rule, but I have shot them both 



