1120 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXI. 



grass plats he can be neared with difficulty only, and No. 5 shot 

 and a good heavy gun are required to bring him down at 40 to 6(i 

 yards distance. His flight is strong with a frequent rapid, even 

 motion of the wings, and if he be at all alarmed, it is seldom sus- 

 pended under 200 to 300 yards, whilst not unfrequently it is 

 continued so as to carry the bird wholly out of sight and pursuit. 

 When flying the neck is extended before the body, and the legs 

 tucked up under it, whereas the whole family of the Herons fly 

 with neck retracted over the back and legs stretched out behind. 

 The walk of the Florican like that of the Heron, is firm and state- 

 ly, easy and graceful : he can move afoot with much speed, and 

 is habitually a great pedestrian, seldom using his powerful wings, 

 except to escape from danger, or to go to and from his feeding- 

 ground at morn and eve, or to change it when he has exhausted 

 a beat. 



" This species is silent and tranquil, and except in the breeding 

 season, seldom utters a sound, but if startled its note is a shrill 

 metallic chik, chik-chik, and the more ordinary note is the same, 

 but softer and somewhat plaintive." 



Mr. Primrose endorses this and says that on being flushed it 

 utters a sort of chirrup, but is otherwise silent. I have myself 

 heard them give a sound when flushed, but should have described 

 it rather as a croak than a chirrup : other than this and the 

 curious humming they give when courting I have not heard them 

 make any sound. 



They are not gregarious as are most other Bustards, and one 

 bird will seldom be found very close to another. 



Col. Macgregor says that he once put up four Florican within a 

 radius of 30 j^ards, but this is unusual and birds are seldom found 

 within a couple of hundred yards of one another, especially where 

 the jungle is thin and the birds can move about freely. Once 

 when duck shooting I saw two old cock-birds in the open within 

 a few yards of one another, and when I sent a man round to drive 

 them overhead he also put up a hen and my companion and I 

 accounted for all thi-ee. Once, also, I shot two hens out of a 

 patch of grass not a hundred yards long, and once or twice I have 

 taken two clutches of eggs laid quite close to one another. 



