Malayan Ornithology . 187 



season, fully developed. The following is from my note- 

 book : — 



" Kwala Kaugsar, Perak, 31st March, 1877. This evening, 

 in a very wet paddy-swamp, I shot a bird uncommonly like a 

 Coot {Fulica atra), except that its toes were very long, and 

 without lobe, web, or any other aid to swimming ; it flew with 

 a heavy flapping flight close over the tops of the reeds. It was 

 of black plumage, but a good deal marked with rusty brown ; 

 also it had a little white on its shoulders ; irides dark brown ; 

 length 15 inches; claws long, very curved and sharp; legs 

 yellowish green, as was the beak, whicli, extended up the 

 forehead in the form of a reddish frontal plate ; so I take the 

 bird to be a young male in breeding-plumage ; in the adult 

 the iris is crimson.'^ 



Again, in my notes I find : — 



'^Singapore, 22nd December, 1877. Today I got four 

 couple of Snipe in the valley near Cluny, also shot a female 

 specimen of the Water- cock (G. cristata), which Drake flushed 

 out of a thick patch of reeds standing in water nearly two 

 feet deep. Though at different times I have sliot dozens of 

 these birds, I never remember finding them anywhere but in 

 very wet places ; in Perak they were exceedingly plentiful on 

 all the j heels, but kept to the thick reed-beds. During last 

 spring I shot a great many on the jheels near Saiyong and 

 Kota Lama, and found them very good eating, though in 

 that respect not equal to the little Goose Teal. 



'' The great difterence in size of the sexes of this bird is very 

 noticeable : the female I shot today is 13 inches in length ; 

 irides dark brown ; legs and beak dull green, the latter red- 

 dish at its base ; head and the upper parts dark brown ; the 

 feathers of the back, also the tertiaries, broadly edged with 

 pale brown ; chin, throat, supercilia, outer web of first 

 primary, and the shoulder white ; underparts pale rufous 

 brown, narrowly barred with dusky brown, j)articularly on 

 the flanks." 



The male is a larger bird, about 16 inches in length, and, 

 when mature, has red irides and its plumage very dark. 



In Singapore I once put up a Water-cock which flew a 



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