THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 1123 



" The female sits on lier eggs about a month, and the yotmg 

 can follow her very soon after they chip the Qgg. In a month 

 they are able to fly ; and they remain with the mother for nearly 

 a year, or till the procreative impulse again is felt by her, when 

 she drives off the long since fully grown young. Two females 

 commonly breed near each other whether for company or mutual 

 aid and help ; and thus the coveys, — so to speak, though they 

 are not literally such, — are usually found to consist of four to 

 six birds. The Florican breeds but once a year in June, July, 

 that is, the eggs are then laid, and the young hatched in July, 

 August." 



Capt. C, B. Macgregor also describes their dance as follows : " In 

 June and July and sometimes as late as August, I have repeatedly 

 witnessed the performance of the nuptial dance by the cock-bird 

 in full plumage. The bird rises from the ground and hovers with 

 extended wings from 10 to 20 feet in the air, and thus attracts the 

 female birds who may be within an easy distance. Twice I have 

 noticed this dance in the evening after the sun has gone down 

 when returning from shooting under the Daphla Hills. The 

 Florican generally breeds in the higher plateaux of the Assam 

 Valley, near the foot of the hills. The males have been seen also 

 by Major Cock in full plumage in the month of May." 



Mr. Primrose, also, in writing to me remarks : " The male bird 

 makes itself very conspicuous during the breeding season from its 

 habit of rising a few feet into the air above the grass and, after 

 hovering a few seconds with quivering wings, again dropping 

 to earth. Whilst thus employed the birds are so taken up with 

 their performance that they are very easily approached and the 

 native pot hunters take full advantage of them at this season." 



The first clutch of eggs I ever took with my own hands was 

 found for me by a Mikir, and shown to me on the ord June 1904. 

 These two eggs were laid in a bare patch in an extensive field ot 

 sun-grass close to a village, the cattle and buffaloes from which had 

 regularly fed over it. In consequence, the grass was neither very 

 high nor very dense and was intersected in every direction by 

 small paths, worn by the animals as they fed. These were taken 

 at Sadiya in the Dibrugarh District and I heard of two other 



