THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 1121 



Big bags of Florican are seldom made, though on one occasion 

 a so-called sportsman in Assam shot 64 of these beautiful birds in 

 one day, during the breeding season. There had been very early 

 and very unusually heavy rains and in consequence a vast area of 

 grass covered plain had become temporarily submerged and for 

 miles in every direction there was water varying in depth from a 

 few inches to two or three feet deep. In the centre of this 

 was a somewhat raised strip, and here all the birds from far and 

 near had collected. The sportsman (?) walked from one end to 

 another, bagged a dozen Florican and then when the birds had 

 again returned and settled on the dry land, walked back and 

 killed a lot more and this he continued to do until darkness drove 

 him home. 



Mr. Anley, writing of the Dooars, said, that he had seen as 

 many as twenty in a morning and Mr. Damant recorded that bags 

 of eight or ten could often be bagged in a morning at the foot of 

 the Garo Hills. 



Col. Comber also says that in many places they are common 

 enough in Assam for ten or more to be killed in a day's shoot. 



With a line of elephants there are still many places where one 

 could pick up a dozen birds or so in a day, but shooting on foot 

 is laborious work, for much ground has to be covered and 

 the grass and jungle make the walking hard. Under the latter 

 circumstances a bag of more than four or five would be good now- 

 a-days for a single gun to get in a day's work. 



It is not often, however, that a sportsman sets out to make a 

 bag of Florican ; many are killed by men out making a miscella- 

 neous bag, but perhaps even more are killed by sportsmen on 

 elephants returning from a day's big game shooting. 



The breeding season of the Florican commences in March and 

 extends into June, but the majority of eggs are laid in the first 

 fortnight of April or in the last week of March. 



The cock Florican, like all the rest of his family, goes in for all 

 sorts of curious antics during the bi*eeding season. Hodgson, as 

 quoted by Hume, writes : " The Florican is neither polygamous nor 

 monogamous nor migratory nor solitary. These birds dwell per- 

 manently and always breed in the districts they frequent, and 



