138 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1891. 



smaller, and occasionally to be only a slight one, composed ©f tine 

 rashes and grass, placed on a floating lotus leaf. 



The eggs are oval in shape, fine and compact in texture, but nut 

 glossy; the ground-colour is very pale yellowish-white, thickly 

 blotched and streaked with red-brown and brownish -purple. They 

 measure 1*7 inches in length by '27 in breadth. 



The number of eggs is said by boatmen and others to be eig'ht or 

 ten ; Mr. Hume personally never found more than five, and Mr. 

 Irwin found two nests — one containing two fresh and the other 

 containing two incubated ones. My clutch consists of four eggs. 



&05-, THE WATER HEN. 

 Gallinula chlompus, Lin. 



The Water Hen occurs sparingly in suitable localities throughout 

 Western India ; it is more common in Sind than in any other part 

 of the Presidency. 



They breed during the rains, making an untidy nest of reeds 

 and rushes, placed sometimes on the lower branches of trees, 

 growing in the water, but generally amongst the reeds and rushes 

 that fringe the borders of so many of the tanks and jheels. 



The eggs, from five to nine or ten in number, are oval in shape, 

 compact in texture, but not glossy ; the ground-colour is a pale si on y 

 drab or whitish-brown, more or less sprinkled with spots, specks, 

 streaks, and small blotches of reddish-brown and purple. They 

 measure 1 '62 inches in length by about T2I in width, 



Milana, near Deesa, July. H. E. Baruct^ 



lli/ilcrahad, Sind, June to August. Do. 



Eastern Narra, Sind, Jane, S. B. Boig, 



907. THE WHITE-BREAST F.I) WATER HEN. 

 Erythra phcehicura, Penn. 



The White-breasted Water Hen occurs in all parts of Western 

 India, that is, of course, in suitable localities. 



They are found chiefly in thickets and wooded nullas, especially 

 when the banks arc rugged and steep ; along hedge-rows and patches 

 of jungle near water. They may often be seen in the morning 

 creeping silently about amongst the reeds and rushes on the borders 

 of u tank or nulla or iu the shallow bed ©f a stream, coming out 



