PARRIN 2. . 363 
Parra indica, Lath. 
900.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 708 ; Butler, Guzerat ; 
Stray Feathers, Vol. IV, p. 19; Deccan, Stray Feathers, 
Vol. IX, p. 480 ; Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, 
1885, p. 134 
THE BRONZE-WINGED JACANA. 
Length, g,10, 9, 125 expanse, g, 20°5, 9,24; wing, ¢, 6, 
0, Lo stale te omen on tarsus, 2 Ao, Be bill ve dD 
9. 1:25 ; middle-toe, g,3°6, 9,4; hind-toe, g, 3:25; claw alone, 2°5. 
Bill greenish-yellow, tinged red at base ; frontal lappet livid ; 
irides brown ; legs dull green. 
Head, neck, and all the under parts rich dark green, glossed on 
the head, neck, and breast, and with purple reflections on the 
back of the neck and upper back ; a broad white supercilium 
beginning just over the eye ; interscapulars, wing-coverts, (except 
the primary), scapulars, and tertiaries, pale shining bronze ; the 
lower back maroon, with a beautiful purple gloss ; tail dark 
cimereous, the lateral feathers bordered with black, tipped white, 
and with a white shaft ; primary-coverts and quills black, faintly 
glossed with green; lower abdomen and thigh-coverts dull 
blackish-green ; under tail-coverts deep chesnut. 
The young bird has the crown chesnut, with a pale eyebrow ; 
the face white ; back of the head and hind neck purple, with a 
lake and coppery gloss; the back cupreous olive-green ; the 
upper tail-coverts and tail dull coppery; quills and primary- 
coverts black; tertials as the back, partly edged with white ; 
throat white; neck and breast pale buff with a median white 
stripe, and the belly white with the flanks blackish ; thigh-coverts 
mixed black and white. 
Bill yellowish-green, darker on the upper mandible ; the front 
lappet is also wanting. 
With the exception of Sind, the Bronze-winged Jacana occurs 
in suitable localities throughout our limits, but is nowhere com- 
mon ; in fact it is only found on the larger reed-grown tanks, and 
never on rivers or the smaller tanks, which are generally free 
from weeds. It is a permanent resident, breeding at the com- 
mencement of the rains, or about July. 
The nest is composed of rushes and weeds, and is a rather 
large circular pad, with a depression in the centre ; it is placed 
generally on a bed of lotus leaves, surrounded more or less by 
rushes. The eggs, four in number, are moderately broad ovals, a 
good deal pointed at one end ; they are highly glossy, of a rich 
warm stone or cafe-au-lait color, the whole surface of the egg 
being covered with a mass of finer or coarser brownish-black or 
almost black lines, intermingled and entangled in inextricable 
confusion ; sometimes these markings are paled down here and 
there to a rich red brown, with an occasional large spot or blotch 
of the same color as the markings. 
