Also 9 florican, -ikan, -ikin. [Of unknown origin; cf. the synonym F>LANDERKIN 2.] ‘A name applied in India to two species of small bustard, the Bengal Florican (Sypheotides bengalensis, Gmelin) and the Lesser Florican (S. auritus, Latham)’ (Yule).
1780. I. Munro, Narrative (1789), 199. They also meet with covies of partridge, wild-duck, and the floriken, a most delicious bird of the buzzard kind.
1863. Speke, Discov. Nile, 58. I shot a new variety of florikan, peculiar in having a light blue band stretching from the nose over the eye to the occiput.
