1886.] PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 363 



the same size as the foregoiug species. The color of the back is some- 

 what lighter, iu No. 15427; also more olivaceous, aud the white mark- 

 ings form uarrow transverse bars across the feathers. The chestnut 

 color of the hind neck is brighter, contrasting strongly with the back. 

 Underneath the gray color is lighter, and the entire abdomen and the 

 tibial feathers are uniformly whitish without bars. The primary coverts 

 are distinctly barred with white like the rest of the upper wing coverts. 



BaUusjouyi sp. nov. ( S ad. type U. S. Nat Mus.,No. 85751) is a much 

 larger bird than any of the foregoing species. The coloration of the 

 back is a slightly grayish olive; each feather having an ill-defined dusky 

 spot in the middle, which, however, is only visible externally in the 

 interscapular region, aud two or three pairs of transverse white spots 

 bordered anteriorly and ])osteriorly by blackish ; the color of the back 

 extends on the hind neck nearly as far as the occiput, bordered on both 

 sides by a bright rusty chestnut band, which forms a continuation of the 

 color of the pileum and occiput. Chin and throat white ; lores, suboc- 

 ular, and auricular regions, fore neck and upper breast clear bluish 

 gray; sides of breast, flauks, and lower part of the breast with broad 

 white dusky-bordered cross-bars on a ground color which is olive on 

 the sides, gradually becoming grayer towards the middle of the breast; 

 entire abdomen, crissum, under tail-coverts, and tibiie, distinctly barred 

 with white and dusky gray, narrower than on the flanks and breast. 

 Wings above olive like the back, and with white cross-bands like those 

 of the flanks but more distant ; primary coverts with two pairs of trans- 

 verse white spots; wings underneath, including axillaries, dusky with 

 narrow white crossbars. Tail colored like the wings. Bill (in the 

 dried skin) orange red, grayish white at tip beyond the nasal groove; 

 feet horny brown. 



The female ( 2 ad. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 85752) is quite similar to the 

 male, but the olive of the back is washed with brownish instead of gray; 

 the breast, flanks, and tibice are barred as in the male, but the abdomen 

 is nearly uniform whitish. 



Habitat. — The two specimens described above are from Shanghai, 

 China. Whether the Indian bird really belongs here I cannot say, but 

 I suspect it does, since Jerdon (B. of Ind., Ill, p. 726) describes it as 

 having "the upper plumage olivaceous throughout, with narrow white, 

 black-edged bars, and his measurements agree pretty well with mine. 

 If such be the case, this is Reichenbach's Ballus indicus (Vollst. Naturg., 

 Novit. Rasor., pi. cccxxii, figs. 2575, 2570 (1851), a name which two years 

 previous was applied by Blyth to the Indian form of Water Rail. I may 

 quote, however, a remark by Mr. Swinhoe (Ibis, 1863, p. 427): "The 

 hind necks of the Formosan birds, as well as of species from Siam, are 

 bright chestnut. This color scarcely shows at all in birds that I have 

 seen from India; but specimens may vary in this respect, and I have 

 seen no large series." 



