THE BEAUTIFUL PORPHYRIO 87 



duckling in its large foot, crush its head and eat its 

 brains, leaving the rest untouched." This behaviour 

 Legge stigmatises as cannibalism ! There is no evi- 

 dence that the purple moor-hen is a cannibal, but it is 

 not safe to keep the bird in the same enclosure as 

 weaker birds. 



Its voice is not melodious ; indeed, it is scarcely 

 more pleasant to refined ears than the wail of the street- 

 singer. 



Purple coots breed in company. The nest is a plat- 

 form made of reeds and rushes, or, when these are not 

 available, of young paddy plants, erected on a tussock 

 of long grass projecting out of the water, usually some 

 way from the edge of the jhiL Hume's observations 

 led him to lay down two propositions regarding the 

 nesting habits of this species. First, " that all birds 

 in the same swamp both lay and hatch off about the 

 same time." Secondly, " that in two different jhils 

 only a dozen miles apart, and, apparently, precisely 

 similarly situated, there will be a difference of fifteen 

 days or more in the period of the laying of the two 

 colonies." Neither of these statements appears to 

 hold good of the purple coot in Ceylon, for, according 

 to Mr. H. Parker, " they do not breed there simul- 

 taneously." " Young birds, eggs in all stages of incu- 

 bation and partly built nests are all found in the same 

 tank. In some cases the eggs are laid at considerable 

 intervals. I have met with a nestling, partly incu- 

 bated eggs of different ages and fresh eggs in the same 

 nest." Widely distributed species not infrequently 

 display local variations in habit. Such local pecuhari- 



