CICONID®. 373 
(including the quills and tail) olivaceous throughout, with nar- 
row. white, black-edged bars; beneath, the chin and throat 
whitish ; the neck, breast, and upper abdomen, bluish-grey ; the 
lower abdomen, vent, under tail-coverts, and thigh-coverts, dull 
olivaceous, with white bands. 
The Blue-breasted Banded Rail is a not uncommon seasonal 
visitant to portions of the Deccan ; it breeds during August and 
September. It does not occur in Sind, neither has it been record- 
ed from Guzerat. 
Genus, Rallus, Zin. 
With longer bills than Hypotenidia. 
Rallus indicus, Blyth. 
914.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. IT, p. 726; Swinhoe and 
Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, 1885, pels: 
THE INDIAN WaTER Ratt. 
Length, 10:5 to 12; expanse, 15 to 16°75; wing, 4°5 to 5; tail, 
2 to 2°8; tarsus, 155 to 1°75 ; Dill at front, 1:5 to 1°75; bill 
from gape, 1°6 to 19. 
Bill horny-brown; basal half of upper mandible and_ basal 
two-thirds of lower mandible orange-red ; irides red to red-brown 5 
legs brownish-pink to fleshy-brown. 
Above olive-brown, with black central streaks ; a dark streak 
below the eye, continued back over the ear-coverts ; lesser-coverts 
with a few white marks; throat whitish ; cheeks, foreneck, breast, 
and upper abdomen, brownish-ashy ; lower belly reddish-brown ; 
flanks black with white bands; lower tail-coverts mixed white, 
rufous, and black; quills and tail dusky-brown, the feathers 
of the last edged paler. 
The Indian Water Rail is, I believe, a very rare and uncertain 
winter visitant to Central India. I have seen it twice at the 
Panghur Lake, and I think I saw it once at Gungrar. I cannot 
find any record of its occurrence within our limits. 
Trize, Cultirostres. 
Bill thick, stout, pointed, slightly curved in some; tarsus 
elongated ; feet moderately large ; hind-toe large, on the same 
plane as the anterior toes; Wings ample ; tail short, mostly of 
large or moderate size. 
Famity, Ciconidee. 
Bill very large and stout, lengthened, straight, or slightly ascend- 
ing, and with the lower mandible sub-recurved, smooth, without 
a groove, less cleft than in the Herons ; nostrils linear, near the 
base of the culmen ; wings long, second and third or third and 
fourth quills longest; tail short; tarsus usually reticulate with 
hexagonal scales; all the anterior toes joined at the base bh 
membrane; hallux resting on the ground for part of its length ; 
claws blunt. 
