CEYLON RAILS. WADERS, GULLS, AND TERNS. 199 
neck ; below this is a black stripe running from each side of 
the gape and meeting in a broad band across the breast. The 
remainder of the lower parts with the outer tail feathers are 
white. Wing coverts largely white, the inner, median, and 
greater coverts being barred with brown and buff. First 
primary black ; second with a white patch on the inner web 
near the root: the white gradually increases on the next 
quills, the secondaries being entirely white. 
Breeding plumage: Head, throat, and foreneck white ; 
the back of the neck glistening golden yellow, bordered on 
each side by a black stripe, and in front by a black patch on 
the nape ; back, scapulars, tertiaries, and lower plumage from 
the neck down chocolate-brown ; tail, upper tail coverts, and 
rump black; wing coverts and wing lining white; wing 
quills remain as in winter. The tail increases in length from 
about 4 inches to nearly a foot. 
Females are slightly larger than males. 
Young birds are like adults in winter plumage, but have a 
rufous head and rufous edges to the feathers of the upper parts ; 
the gorget is wanting, the upper breast being speckled brown. 
In the breeding season the bill is bluish, the iris brown, and 
the legs and feet plumbeous black ; in winter the bill is dark 
brown, paler at the tip, the iris yellow, and the legs greenish. 
Length of male in winter 12, in summer 18; wing 7°8 ; 
tail in winter 3°75, in summer 10; tarsus 2; bill from gape 
1-3. Females: length in winter 15, in summer 21] ; wing 9. 
Distribution —Common throughout the low-country wher- 
ever there are suitable sheets of water. The species extends 
all over India and Burma, and eastwards to South China and 
the Philippines. 
Habits —Frequents tanks and still sheets of water covered 
with lotus leaves, over which it runs rapidly, feeding on insects, 
crustaceans, and vegetable matter. The cry rather resembles 
the mewing of a cat. The breeding season is from about March 
to June. The nest is generally a blob of floating waterweed, 
almost awash, but sometimes the eggs are laid on bare floating 
lotus leaves. They are four in number, peg-top shaped, and 
in colour a glossy bronze, which becomes lighter as incubation 
proceeds. Average measurement about 1°44 by 1°06. 
