f)38 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVII. 



obtained by Radde on the Tunka River. The British Museum had a wretched 

 collection of goose-skins when I last saw it in 1903, and though it may have 

 more skins by now, I fancy it is still in want of many more before one can 

 consider it in any way representative and big enough to allow of final deduc- 

 tions being drawn from it. 



M. Alpheraky's book is a fine one, but even this appears to me to be, in great 

 part, more of a ground-work f<>r future ornithologists to work on than a 

 definite final opinion on .the differentiations of the known species of geese he 

 treats of. 



It would assist myself and other field ornithologists much if Mr. Oates 

 would give us a key to the Bean-geese. By merely reading his article, inter- 

 esting though it is, it is quite impossible for us to differentiate between the 

 species, as I find his measurements overlap constantly. 



E. C. STUART BAKER. 



Shillong, Assam, 

 5th July 1906. 



No. XXXII .—THE BREEDING OF THE BENGAL FLORICAN 

 (SYPHEOTIS BENGALENSIS). 



There is so little known concerning the breeding of this grand bird that I 

 am very glad now to be in a position to record a certain amount of informa- 

 tion on the subject. 



In the five years I lived in the Dibrugarh District of Assam, in spite of the 

 offer of good rewards for the eggs of this bird, most unfortunately only two 

 were obtained the whole time I was there and these were found for me by a 

 Mikir Shikari in Sadiya, left by him in situ and taken by me fearfully hard 

 set on the 3rd June 1904. These eggs were laid in an extensive patch of sun 

 grass which had been considerably fed over by buffaloes, and was consequently 

 neither very high nor very dense, and was intersected in every direction by 

 buffalo paths. I heard of two other clutches being seen whilst I was in this 

 district, one of which was said to have been seen in July, the other in March. 



In the early part of February this year in the course of conversation with 

 a native gentleman it was mentioned that vast numbers of florican bred in 

 his district, one in Western Assam, and, in consequence of this information, 

 he arranged to depute for me some twenty or thirty men to try and obtain 

 a series of the eggs. In*pite. however, of the large number of men employed 

 on the work and the hv.ge extent of country covered, the total number of eggs 

 procured was only twenty-four, of which one w r as smashed before reaching me. 



The men put on to hunt for the nests declared that they were started in the 

 work too late, as the birds bred late in February, March and early April. One 

 man who began his search earlier than the rest was the most successful and 

 got a pair on tbe last day of February and another on the 25th March and 

 others in April, at the eud of which month several other men began work. 

 Clutches were obtained on the 5tb, 7th (two), 9th (two), and 1 1th. Nearly all 



