. Indian sporting birds . loured, mostly glossy black, but with the wings white, makinga most conspicuous contrast in flight, and noticeable even mrepose. The back shows the partridge brown of the hen, and youngcocks have hen plumage in their first year, but after the secondyear are fully coloured ; in the intermediate plumage the whiteon the wing is present, so that a brown bird, if with white wings,may be safely shot as a cock; hens should always be let off. Hens are bigger than cocks in this species, though thedifference is more in weight than in measurements, a henweighing four or even fiv
. Indian sporting birds . loured, mostly glossy black, but with the wings white, makinga most conspicuous contrast in flight, and noticeable even mrepose. The back shows the partridge brown of the hen, and youngcocks have hen plumage in their first year, but after the secondyear are fully coloured ; in the intermediate plumage the whiteon the wing is present, so that a brown bird, if with white wings,may be safely shot as a cock; hens should always be let off. Hens are bigger than cocks in this species, though thedifference is more in weight than in measurements, a henweighing four or even five pounds, while a cock will be a poundless as a rule. This florican is a characteristic bird of eastern Bengal, whencethe name Bengal Florican often given to it; but in addition tothose parts of Bengal which lie north of the Ganges, it is foundin the adjoining parts of Oudh and the North-west Provinces : itis well known in the Assam Valley, but not found in southernor western India, or in any country outside India THE FLORICAN 135 It is a bird of the open grass country, where it lives solitary,preferring thin grass, though it will take to high thick growthif there is no other cover available ; in thick cover it lies close,but in thin short grass it is hard to get near and runs fastand far. When flushed it flies slowly, but with frequent wing-beats,and generally for only a mile or less, and succumbs to a com-paratively slight blow. Like so many other solitary birds, itis noticed to affect particular spots, these being soon afterreoccupied when the specimen found haunting them has beenkilled. The greater part of the floricans food is vegetable, includingsprouts, seeds, and runners of grasses, berries, mustard-tops,milky-juiced leaves, &c., but it takes a great deal of animal foodalso, feeding particularly on locusts when these can be had,besides grasshoppers and beetles. Corn it does not seem to carefor. In the season when blister-beetles abound it feeds freelyon them, a
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