THE GAME BIRDS OF IXDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 737 



or near, the hen even after incnbation has begun. Although this 

 ■seems to be a generally accepted fact, there are a good many points 

 which would seem to be against it. In the first place male birds 

 which displa}^ continualli/ throughout the breeding season seldom 

 keep to one wife for the whole period, nor as a rule are 

 ■monogamous males as pugnacious as are polygamous birds. 

 Jerdon's description of the display and pugnacity of the 

 Likh certainly look like attributes of a polj^gamous male. He 

 writes : " The full and perfect breeding plumage is generally 

 completed during Juh^ and August. At this season the male bird 

 generally takes up a position on some rising ground, from which 

 it wanders but little, for many days even ; and during the morn- 

 ings especially, but in cloudy weather at all times of the day 

 «very now and then rises a few feet perpendicularly into the air, 

 uttering at the same time a peculiar low croaking call, more like 

 that of a frog or cricket than that of a bird, and then drops down 

 again. This is probabl}^ intended to attract the females, who be- 

 fore their eggs are laid, wander greatly ; or perhaps to summon a 

 rival cock, for I have seen two in such desperate fight as to allow 

 me to approach within thirty yards before they ceased their battle." 



The Bengal Floricans, males and females, undoubtedly do not 

 pair at all, and the male is neither polygamous or monogamous, yet 

 its courting displays are identical with those of the Lesser Flori- 

 •can as is the habit of the male of displaying in one particular spot 

 whilst the females ^^'ander about the country. It is probable, 

 therefore, that when we come to know the domestic habit of 

 Sypheotis aurita more intimately they will prove to be similar to 

 those of Syplieotis hengcdensis. 



The Lesser Florican makes no nest in which to deposit her 

 •eggs, nor does she, as a rule, even trouble to find or make a 

 hollow for this purpose merely depositing them on the ground in 

 some small bare patch in a field of grass. The grass field selected 

 is seldom one of an 3^ very great size or having dense growth in it 

 and the bird seems to prefer small pieces of grass of some two 

 feet or so high and of scanty growth. The bird watched by Mr. 

 Wenden deposited its eggs " on the bare ground, which was 

 perfectly level (without the least signs of scratching) in some 



