26 THE BENGAL FLORICAN. 



ally 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." 



In the cold season, I have most commonly found it in the 

 neighbourhood of large rivers, the Ganges and its affluents on 

 the left bank. Open turfy spaces, sprinkled with tufts of rushes, 

 such as occur every here and there in the midst of wide stretches 

 of Jhao {Tamarix indica) jungle are favourite haunts, as are 

 patches of recently burnt grass, where the new tender shoots are 

 just sprouting. If not fired at, they will almost always return 

 to the spot whence they were flushed, if not at once, at any rate 

 before next morning, and when beating for Parah (Hog-deer) on 

 the banks of the Ganges, I made it a rule never to fire at a 

 Florican unless he rose within a reasonable distance, as, if not 

 fired at, he was sure to be found next day within a short dis- 

 tance of the place at which he was flushed. 



Florican are, I think, almost the fattest birds one shoots, and 

 certainly amongst the best birds for the table with which India 

 furnishes us. Whether it is on account of their excessive fatness 

 and their somewhat smaller size, or what, I do not know, but the 

 Florican is by no means such a difficult opponent to a good Falcon 

 as is the Houbara. A good Shaheen will cut a Florican down with 

 a slanting dash almost as soon as it is up, and before it has time 

 to drop, which it always tries to do directly it catches sight of the 

 Falcon. The prettiest hawking I ever saw was in 1852, in the 

 Tarai between Pilibhit and Khairagarh, with some Falcons 

 belonging, I think, to the Nawab of Rampur. A Shaheen 

 trained to keep up in the air at an elevation of about 30 yards, 

 circled and hovered above us ; the tract was turfy, with little 

 patches of rush and flag, green but not swampy ; the beaters 

 walked in a close silent line a few yards in front of us ; three 

 Florican were successively flushed, at the very feet of the men, 

 and cut down by this one Falcon, almost before the quarry knew 

 it was pursued. Several other birds were intermediately flushed, 

 and two or three black Partridges killed, but the Falcon never 

 attempted to strike at anything that was not flushed quite close, 

 so as to be within reach of her direct stoop. 



From Assam I have received a number of most interest- 

 ing notes in regard to this species, which are the more welcome 

 in that heretofore scarcely anything has been recorded in con- 

 nection with the Florican in that Province. 



Colonel Graham writes : — " The Bengal Florican may be said 

 to extend throughout the Assam Valley, from the Manas River, 

 on the west, to the Mishmi Hills, east of Sadiya, on the 

 east 



