364 PARRIN &. 
They measure 1°47 inches in length by about 1:03 in breadth. 
Grnus, Hydrophasianus, Wag. 
Bill more slender than in Metopodius ; forehead without a 
lappet; tail very long, the four central feathers especially greatly 
lengthened at the breeding season ; wings long, with the first and 
second quills equal, and longer than the third ; first and fourth 
primaries with a lancet-shaped portion of web, as it were, appended 
to the tip; hind-claw not so long as in Metopodius, otherwise 
similar to that genus. 
Hydrophasianus chirurgus, Scop. 
901.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. IT, p. 709; Butler, Guzerat ; 
Stray Feathers, Vol. IV, p. 20; Deccan, Stray Feathers, 
Vol. IX, p. 431; Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 258 ; 
Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India; Ibis, 1885, p. 134. 
THE PHEASANT-TAILED JACANA. 
Length, g, 18, 7,20; expanse, g, 24, 9, 30; wing, ¢, 8, 
9, 9°53; tail, gs, 10,. 9, 11; tansus, 3, 2°12, 9, 24; bill ab iront, 
ay 12.09, 4525. 
Bill pale leaden-blue, greenish at tip ; irides dark brown ; legs 
pale bluish-green. 
In summer plumage, the forehead, top of the head, face, chin, 
throat, and neck white, a broad black mark on the top of the 
head; hind neck pale shining yellow, edged by a dark line; 
upper plumage, including the scapulars and tertiaries, shining 
dark olive-brown with purple reflections; wings with the coverts 
white, first primary black, the second nearly so, and the third 
black on the outer webs and a broad tip ; the rest white, all tipped 
with black, as are the greater wing-coverts; upper tail-coverts 
bronzed-black ; tail black; beneath from the breast deep brown- 
ish-black, dull on the thigh-coverts; the under tail-coverts deep 
chesnut. 
In winter plumage, the upper parts, including the lesser wing- 
coverts and tertiaries, are pale hair-brown, the former more or less 
barred with white, and the greater-coverts pure white; the top 
of the head and back of the neck brown, with a white superci- 
lium, and the feathers of the forehead white spotted; a pale 
golden-yellow line from behind the eye down the sides of the 
neck, bordered by the black line from the gape, which crosses the 
lower part of the breast, forming a more or less broad pectoral 
gorget; first primary (only) with an appendage, fourth attenuated 
and prolonged ; tail with the central feathers as the back, pale 
brown, slightly lengthened. 
Length, 12 to 13; tail, 3 to 4. 
In young birds the superciliary line is ferruginous, passing into 
a less marked yellow neck-stripe, and the brown band is also 
less distinct. 
