ELWES'S CEAKE 111 



it has no black-and-white barring, and the back of the head and 

 upper-parts generally are olive-brown : in young birds this brown 

 tint replaces the chestnut on the fore-parts. 



Except in the extreme North-west, it is found over India, 

 Burma, and, in winter, Ceylon. It extends through Assam to 

 Pegu and Arrakan. In some parts of India it is, however, little 

 known, being only recorded from Mysore and the Wynaad in the 

 Peninsula. 



It is sociable and fond of weed-covered ponds, on the vegetation 

 of which it runs about, coming freely out of the cover on the 

 banks in the early morning, and feeding on the insects to be 

 found on the leaves. It rises readily enough when disturbed, 

 though some specimens prefer to dive and others to run to cover. 

 In more open water it swims about like a moorhen. Besides 

 insects, it eats seeds and greenstuff, and takes grit freely, like 

 rails in general. By day it hides among the fringing herbage of 

 ponds or cultivated land of a wet character. 



It breeds among waterside herbage like Baillon's crake, but 

 makes a rather bigger nest ; the eggs, to be found from July to 

 September, are about half a dozen in number, with reddish and 

 dull mauve spots on a background of tinted white. Outside 

 India it is found in China and Japan, and in the other direction 

 as far as Java. 



Elwcs's Crake. 



* Amaurornis hicolor. 



At several thousand feet elevation in Sikkim, as also in 

 the Khasi Hills, there occurs the present species, distinguished 

 from our other small crakes by the large amount of slate in its 

 plumage, which is only diversified by the brown back and wings, 

 all the neck as well as the face and under-parts being grey. The 

 legs are of a pale dull red, and the size is about that of a quail. 



The bird has been found in the usual haunts of rails, in cover 

 alongside pools, swamps, and wet rice-fields. It may probably be 

 found to go lower down in winter and to extend some distance 

 along the hills, birds of this kind being generally little noticed. 



* Porzana on plate. 



