382 OTIDIDiE. 



but you are obliged to run towards them, even to get them up : if 

 you simply walk after them, they will rarely rise. Their where- 

 abouts is, however, generally easily discovered by their frog-like 

 call, and their occasional sudden jumps up into the air. They do 

 not seem to call much when the sun is bright, but chiefly in the 

 morning and during cloudy days. I have often watched them flying 

 or jumping up, but I am still uncertain why they do it. My 

 original impression was that they sprung up to seize insects from 

 the grass-stalks, but I have long abandoned this idea as they rise 

 much above the grass. Moreover, I have only seen one bird thus 

 rise that could have been a female, and this was dark-coloured, and 

 probably a male that had not assumed breeding-plumage ; and I am 

 inclined to consider these sudden flights as simply one of those 

 bridal displays, so common in the males, especially of gallinaceous 

 birds, such as the flapping of the wings in Pheasants, the nautch 

 of the Peacock, and lek of the Capercailzie, and the pouch-inflated 

 strut of the Big Bustard, and if it can be certainly established that 

 this habit is confined to the males, no alternative solution seems 

 open to us. 



" The nests are exceedingly hard to find, and I have only 

 managed to secure eight eggs belonging to three nests ; they differ 

 very much in size, ground-colour, and markings. 



" The first nest I found contained a single fresh egg, which 1 

 took on the 21st September. 



" The second, which I found on the 5th October, contained four 

 slightly-set eggs (all four being of the same size and markings). 



" The third nest I found on the Tth of October; it contained 

 three eggs of two very difierent types, and all slightly set. 



" The nests were like those of the Great Bustard's, mere (I can 

 hardly call them even hollows) spaces among the thinnish long grass." 



Lieut. P. Alexander writes: — "The hen Plorican commences 

 to lay in Sholapoor and its environs about the middle of September. 

 The eggs are from three to five in number ; almost always placed 

 near water, and not, as a rule, in very long grass. The mating- 

 season commences at the close of August or the beginning of 

 September, at which time the male bird commences to jump in tbe 

 grass ; this jumping is almost entirely confined to the male bird, 

 and ceases as soon as the mating-season is over. The males are 

 easily killed at this time, as the act of jumping is always accom- 

 panied by a call (very like a frog's croak), and they can be followed 

 thereby ; but as soon as you have approached within a reasonable 

 distance, and have once caught sight of tbe bird, you must run at 

 him as hard as you can, as they do not often jump in the same spot 

 twice, unless accompanied by the female. I was fortunate enough 

 to shoot six in this manner, in full black plumage. 



" A nest of the Plorican that I found on the 20th September was 

 on bare ground ; the spot chosen was shghtly cup-shaped, and w^as 

 hedged in by grass about a foot in height." 



In his note on birds in the Deccan, Lieutenant Burgess tells us 

 that " the Plorican breeds during the end of the monsoon, laying 



