BUSTARDS . 
457 
Ruffed Bustards. 
Florican. 
The hubara (Hubarct undulata ) of Northern Africa and the 
nearly allied Macqueen’s bustard (H. mcicqueeni ) of Western Asia, 
represent a genus characterised by the rather short legs, the lengthened and 
basally depressed bill, and the presence of a ruff on the neck and a crest on the 
head; the latter appendages being larger in the male than the female. Breeding 
in Turkestan and South-Western Siberia, as well as in Afghanistan and Northern 
Persia, Macqueen’s bustard ranges during the winter into North-Western India 
and Southern Persia, from whence a few individuals straggle into Eastern and 
Central Europe. In India this species usually makes its appearance in September, 
departing again with the commencement of the hot season at the end of March or 
beginning of April. During its sojourn there it may be met with in pairs, or 
even solitary, although far more generally in small flocks; its favourite haunts 
being barren plains dotted here and there with small patches of covert. It is a 
silent bird, and chiefly a vegetable feeder; although its African cousin is said to 
be insectivorous. Preferring running to flying, Mr. Hume states that Macqueen’s 
bustard, when on an open plain, has a habit of squatting close to the ground 
beneath a protecting bush or stone, and is at such times invisible even to a 
practised eye. Directly, however, it reaches taller covert, it raises itself to its 
full height in order to have a good view of its pursuers. In districts where camels 
are commonly employed, these birds are easily approached by a gunner mounted 
on one of those animals. 
Nearly allied to the bustards are the. Indian birds known as 
floricans, of which there are two species, namely, the Bengal florican 
(Sypheotides bengalcnsis), and the lesser florican (S. aurita). They are charac¬ 
terised by the moderately long, arched, and somewhat broad beak; the long legs, 
in which a considerable portion of the tibia is bare ; and by the males (which are 
smaller than the females) undergoing a second moult in spring, after which the 
plumage becomes mostly black, with more or less white on the wings, while either 
a head-crest or ear-tuft is developed, and the plumes of the breast may become 
much lengthened. The hen-birds and young males are coloured much after the 
ordinary bustard type, and the former undergo no spring moult. In the case of 
the lesser florican, the male of which has an ear-tuft in place of a crest, it is known 
that the winter plumage of both sexes is alike, but there has been some doubt 
whether this is so with the larger species, although it probably is. 
Florican are exclusively Indian birds, spending the whole of their time in the 
country, although the smaller species makes seasonal migrations from one district 
to another. The dark and conspicuous breeding-plumage of the male would of itself 
be sufficient to indicate a difference in the habits of these birds from those of other 
bustards. We find, indeed, it stated by Hodgson that although the Bengal species 
dwells exclusively upon plains, yet it never frequents “ nude or cultivated plains. 
Shelter of nature’s furnishing is indispensable to it, and it solely inhabits wide- 
spreading plains, sufficiently elevated to be free from inundation, and sufficiently 
moist to yield a pretty copious crop of grasses; but grasses not so thick nor so high 
as to impede the movements or vision of a well-sized bird that is ever afoot and 
always on the look-out. In spite of the exquisite flavour for which these birds are 
so famed, florican are by no means fastidious in their food, scarcely anything, from 
