BANDED CEAKE 105 



Banded Crake. 



Balliiia superciliaris* 



The banded crake, although barred with black-and-white 

 below like the long-billed rails, has a shorter bill and toes than 

 these birds, though the beak has not the almost fowl-like form 

 found in some of the short-billed crakes and the moorhens ; it 

 is rather over an inch long, the bird being about as large as a 

 snipe. 



The general colour above is chestnut in front, and greenish- 

 brown on the back ; but only in adult males is the chestnut 

 developed all over the head and neck ; young birds are brown 

 even here, and hens, except perhaps old ones, have the crown and 

 back of the neck brown. The legs are grey, and the bill brown 

 and green. 



The banded crake is seldom found outside Ceylon ; but it 

 is believed to have been found breeding about Karwar and 

 Khandalla, and specimens have been got in many other localities 

 in the Empire, from Oudh to Singapore, so that it might be 

 expected to occur anywhere. Even in Ceylon it is only to be 

 found from October to February, and does not breed in the 

 island so far as is known. While there it inhabits the hills, and 

 though often found in the usual haunts of rails, in cover by 

 streams and paddy fields, it is not confined to w^et ground. The 

 setting in of the north wind is the signal for its arrival in 

 Ceylon, where it first appears on the west coast. The incoming 

 birds behave as if they had made a long journey, being very tired 

 and taking refuge in all sorts of queer places. Layard says that 

 he found one in the well of his carriage, one in his gig-apron, 

 and another in a shoe under his bed ! The bird, in fact, seems 

 to have quite a mania for coming indoors. 



When flushed this bird quite commonly takes to a tree, and 

 the nests attributed to it, and found in the mainland localities 

 above mentioned during the monsoon, were placed above ground 

 on bamboos, tangled herbage, bushes, or stumps. The eggs 

 were creamy-white and unspotted, thus being abnormal for the 

 family, since spotted eggs are general among rails. 



* euryzonoides on plate. 



