U'liitc-brcastcd U^iicrhcn. 165 



birds make good aviary inmates, inasmuch as they are easy to 

 cater for, but are quarrelsome amongst themselves in the 

 breeding season. The noise they make then is appalling, 

 squawks, screams, and yells in every conceivable kind of note 

 make night hideous, and one occasionally gets a burst of it in 

 the day time also. They are adepts at hiding, and one some- 

 times fails to see them for weeks at a time. T think that, 

 like our own birds, they feed a good deal by night. 



Mr. E. H. Aitken, in a letter which was published in 

 " Stray Feathers," has given a very interesting" account of the 

 nidilication of this species in the neighbourhood of Bombay. 

 He, says : — 



■' In September i8bS 1 was liNinj;- at ilomhay in a house surrouiuled hy 

 verv low-lving tields. vvhicli were under water nearly all the monsoon, and of 

 course became the resort of vari()U> uaterd)irds. .Amont^- tliem this year 

 were half-a-dozen of lhi> (iaHiiiiila, which very soon made their ])resence 

 ki!own b\- their awful cries. 1 cannot understand Dr. Jerdon dismissing the 

 cr.' of this biril, if he e\er heard it during the breeding-season, with the 

 words ■ has a loud call." An\lhing more unearthly proceeding from the 

 ll;roat of a bird I never heard. It began with loud harsh roars which 

 miglit have been elicited from a bear b_\' roasting it slowly over a large 

 fire, then suddenh" change to a clear note repeated like the coo of a Dove. 

 Often in the morning two or three of these birds might be seen in some 

 little open space, fighting like voung cock-chickens."" 



■■ When flushed they seldom flew far. seeming to trust more to their 

 legs than their wings. After a time the cries ceased, and the birds were 

 ra.rely seen, so I concluded the}- must have their nests now, and set myself 

 to find them. Day after day I waded through the dirty water and long 

 grass (in which I had myself caught gigantic water-bugs, nearly three 

 inches long, and other horrible creatures innumerable"), searching every 

 accessil)le bush and likely i)lace along the edges of the fields, but all in vain. 

 The birds were there, for I often flushed them, but for a long time all my 

 efforts to find the nest were utterly baffled." 



' It little occurred to me that while I was poking among bushes and 

 grass where orthodox birds of that class ought to breed, my Water-hen 

 might be sitting over my head, looking down at me. (Jne morning, however, 

 a native cultivator, whom I had told to search also, happened to see one of 

 the birds going up a middle-sized date-palm that stood out of the water, 

 in the top of which there seemed to be an old Crow's nest. He was soon 

 up too, and after clearing away a good deal of rubbish, he took down the 

 nest ;ind l)rought it to me in triumjih. The nest was nither flat, but might 

 have lieen an okl Crow"s. It contained four eggs of a brownish-white 



colour, not very thickU covered with sfiots of three coloiu's — liglit brown, 

 dark rusty brown, arid jjaK' pui-plish-blue. They were rather larger than a 

 Crow"s. 1 was sorry to find, however, that thev were verv nearlv hatched ; 



