392 BALLIDJE. 



of weeds, and had a large secure egg-cavity. The water where this 

 nest was found was about four feet deep." 



Mr. E. H. Aitken, in a letter which I published in ' Stray 

 Feathers, 3 has given a very interesting account of the nidification 

 of this species in the neighbourhood of Bombay. He says : " In 

 September 1868 I was living at Bombay in a house surrounded by 

 very low-lying fields, which were under water nearly all the 

 monsoon, and of course became the resort of various water-birds. 

 Among them this year were half-a-dozen of this Gallinula, which 

 very soon made their presence known by their awful cries. I cannot 

 understand Dr. Jerdon dismissing the cry of this bird, if he ever 

 heard it during the breeding-season, with the words ' has a loud 

 call.' Anything more unearthly proceeding from the throat of a 

 bird I never heard. It began with loud harsh roars which might 

 have been elicited from a bear by roasting it slowly over a large 

 fire, then suddenly change to a clear note repeated like the coo of 

 a Dove. Often in the morning two or three of these birds might 

 be seen in some little open space, fighting like young cock- 

 chickens. 



" When flushed they seldom flew far, seeming to trust more to 

 their legs than their wings. After a time the cries ceased and the 

 birds were rarely seen, so I concluded they must have their nests now, 

 and set myself to find them. Day after day I waded through the 

 dirty water and long grass (in which I had myself caught gigantic 

 water-bugs, nearly three inches long, and other horrible creatures 

 innumerable), searching every accessible bush and likely place along 

 the edges of the fields, but all in vain. The birds were there, for 

 I often flushed them, but for a long time all my efforts to find the 

 nest were utterly baffled. 



" It little occurred to me that while I was poking among bushes 

 and grass where orthodox birds of that class ought to breed, my 

 Water-hen might be sitting over my head, looking down at me. 

 One morning, however, a native cultivator, whom I had told to 

 search also, happened to see one of the birds going up a middle- 

 sized date-palm that stood out of the water, in the top of which 

 there seemed to be an old Crow's nest. He was soon up too, and 

 after clearing away a good deal of rubbish, he took down the nest 

 and brought it to me in triumph. The nest was rather flat, but 

 might have been an old Crow's. It contained four eggs of a 

 brownish-white colour, not very thickly covered with spots of three 

 colours light brown, dark rusty brown, and pale purplish blue. 

 They were rather larger than a Crow's. I was sorry to find, however, 

 that they were very nearly hatched ; the whole four were cracked 

 and I could hear the chicks chirping distinctly inside ; so I made 

 the man go up again and fix the nest securely in its place, and soon 

 had the satisfaction of seeing the old bird making its way up to it, 

 not flying, but running up the rough bark of the date like a ladder. 

 A day or two after the nest was empty, and at the bottom of the 

 tree 1 found a fragment of an egg, which I have before me now. 



