THE BIRDS OP NORTHERN THAILAND 103 



Family RALLIDAE 



KALLUS AQUATICUS INDICUS Blyth 



Indian Water Kail 



Rallus indicus Blyth, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, vol. 18, 1849, p. 820 (Lower 



Bengal). 

 Rallus aquaticus indicus, Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1936, 



p. 80 (Chiang Mai). 



The water rail is apparently a rare migrant at Chiang Mai, where 

 I observed one February 28, 1931, and took specimens February 4 and 

 10, 1936. 



Like the other migratory rails, this species may most easily be 

 found in spring, since by then the countryside is almost wholly dry 

 and paludine forms are concentrated at the few small areas still wet 

 enough to satisfy their needs. My birds were taken at dusk as they 

 fed in the open just outside heavy stands of rushes and sedges; 

 in the fading light they resembled small, blackish chickens. 



In this species the bill is rather thin and as long as the head. The 

 adult has the feathers of the upperparts black with broad olive-brown 

 margins; a broad olive-brown band through the eye and an ashy- 

 gray supercilium; the throat white; the sides of the head, the fore- 

 neck, and the upper abdomen ashy gray, more or less washed with 

 olive-brown, especially on the breast; the remaining underparts 

 banded black, white, and buff. 



RALLUS STRIATUS ALBIVENTER Swainson 



Indian Gray-breasted Rail 



Rallus albiventer Swainson, Animals in menageries [The Cabinet of Natural 



History, vol. 123], 1838, p. 337 (India). 

 Hypotaenidia striata striata, Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1931, 



p. 169 (Chiang Mai). 

 Rallus striatus gularis, Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1936, p. 



80 (Chiang Mai). 



I collected this rail at Chiang Mai in November 1930 and again 

 June 23 and 28, 1935 ; otherwise, it has been found in our provinces 

 only at Ban Mae Klang, where I saw one in September, 1935. 



My specimens were shot in flooded ricefields. The two June birds 

 are males with greatly enlarged gonads. 



These examples had the irides orange-brown; the apical half of 

 the bill light horny brown, the culmen darker, the basal half rose; 

 the feet and toes fleshy gray-brown ; the claws horny gray. 



The adult has the crown and nape rufous, more or less streaked 

 with black; the feathers of the remaining upperparts dark brown, 

 edged olive-brown and crossed by narrow, wavy white bars; the throat 



