Descriptive List of the Common Birds 



time with a higher intonation, till it gets, as it 

 were, the key-note of its call." 



This species runs very fast, and does not, as 

 a rule, take to its wings unless flushed. (I. G. II. 

 p. 51, but plate not a good one.) 



The Rails, 174-176 



174. Amaurornis phoenicurus : The White- 

 breasted Water-hen. (F. 1401), (J. 907), 



(+11-) 



A dark slaty-grey bird, almost black, with a 

 white face, throat, and breast. The under 

 parts of the tail, which is carried almost erect, 

 are chestnut red. Wherever there is a pond 

 having near it some bamboos or rushes there 

 is one likely to see a water-hen. It is a great 

 skulker, and always makes for cover the 

 moment it thinks it is being watched. " It is," 

 as Blanford remarks, " an excessively noisy 

 bird ; its loud, hoarse, reiterated call, pre- 

 dominating in the evening and morning over 

 the cries of the other waders and the ducks in 

 the village tank, must be familiar to most 

 people in India." (Illus. B. B., p. 173.) 



175. Porphyrio poliocephalus : The Purple 

 Moorhen, or Purple Coot. (F. 1404), (J. 902), 

 (IV.) 



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