‘GALLINULING. 365 
The Pheasant-tailed Jacana occurs commonly throughout the 
district. It is a permanent resident, breeding about the middle 
of the rains, or a little later. 
The nest is a heap of weeds, placed in the water in the midst 
of grass or rushes. The eggs, invariably four in number, are 
peg-top shape ; the shell is compact and hard and is highly glossy ; 
the ground color varies from greenish-bronze to rufous-brown 
bronze ; they are unspotted. 
They measure 1°46 in length by 112 in breadth. 
Famity, Rallide. 
Bill more or less compressed, short, pointed, and wedge-shaped ; 
nostrils median, in a short groove, pervious; legs stout; tarsus 
short, or moderately long; feet large; wings moderate or short, 
and rounded, usually with a tubercle or small spur on the 
flexure ; tail short or almost wanting. 
SuB-FAMILY, Gallinuline. 
Bill with the keel advancing on the forehead, where there is 
usually a casque ; toes long and slender or bordered by a scol- 
loped web; wings short and rounded ; hind-toe long. 
Genus, Porphyrio, Brisson. 
Bill very strong, thick, conic, depressed ; base prolonged into a 
thick horny casque covering the forehead and the top of the 
head; upper mandible very thick, curving from the base, point- 
ed; lower mandible less thick; gonys ascending; gape gently 
curving ; nares apert, oval in the middle of the bill; wings mode- 
rate, ample; tail short; tarsus lengthened, strong; toes very, 
long, ing bordered by a narrow web; claws long, very slightly 
curved. 
Porphyrio poliocephalus, Latham. 
902.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 713; Butler, Guzerat ; 
Stray Feathers, Vol. IV, p. 20; Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol. 
IX, p. 431; Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 260; 
Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, 1885, p. 135. 
THE PURPLE Coot. 
Keim, Hin. 
: cae! 18 to 19; expanse, 30 to 32; wing, 10; tail, 4; tarsus, 
Bill red, culmen darker, a blood-red spot at base of each mandi- 
ble ; casque cherry-red ; irides dull red; legs dull pale brick-red. 
Lores, round the eyes, cheeks, head, and nape, purple tinged 
with grey on the sides, and gradually passing into the purer purple 
of the hind-neck, back, and upper tail-coverts ; wing-coverts pale 
blue ; the quills dull Antwerp-blue, dusky on their inner webs; 
tail black, the feathers slightly edged dull blue; beneath, the 
