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pinkish-stone, with a few spofcs of 

 rufous distributed over tiie egg, or 

 clustering towards tlie larger end. The 

 egg is double spotted, the underlying 

 spots being lilac-grey, nearly as distinct 

 as the overlying ones. As a rule, the 

 rufous spots are small, but occasionally 

 they are large and form blotches 

 towards the big end of the egg." 



Notes. — This bird is much like the 

 European bird R. aquaticus, differing, 

 however, in that " the adult male of R. 

 indicus is darker and more ochraceous 

 brown and distinguished by its whitish 

 eyelid. There is also a distinct streak 

 of ochraceous brown spotted with 

 black running through the eye and 

 extending along the ear coverts which 

 is lacking in the European bird." 



MOORHEN. 



GALLINULA CHLOEOPUS (l.) 

 Description. — Length 14 inches. 

 Frontal plate and basal half of bill 

 red, the other part greenish yellow. 

 Iris red. Legs greenish-yellow^ red- 

 dish orange above the tarsal joint, toes 

 very long. 



Upper parts dark olive-brown. 

 Head, neck, and under parts slate, 

 grey, with some white streaks on the 

 flanks. Under tail-coverts white at 

 the sides and black in the center. 

 Young birds have head and upper 

 parts olive brown ; throat, front neck, 

 and a spot under the eyes whitish ; 

 below pale-grey. 



Distribution. — The greater part of 

 Africa, Europe, India, Japan, Siberia 

 and throughout China generally. It is 

 a Summer visitant in the Yangtse 

 Valley. 



