350 BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 



wing-coverts brown, each feather edged with buffy white ; primaries and 

 secondaries plain brown, the first primary with the shaft and the outer web 

 white ; upper tail-coverts dark brown, edged with pale buffy white ; tail 

 brown, the outer feathers faintly edged paler ; chin, throat, sides and front 

 of the neck, breast, upper abdomen, the thigh-coverts and the whole of the 

 sides of the body blackish, each feather distinctly edged with greyish white ; 

 lower abdomen and vent greyish white ; under tail-coverts white barred 

 with dark brown; edge of the wing white; under wing-coverts mingled 

 white and brown. 



The male in winter has the fleshy process on the head reduced in size or 

 nearly obsolete. 



The female at all seasons has merely a frontal shield, and the plumage 

 differs from that of the male. The crown and nape are reddish brown ; 

 the whole upper plumage, scapulars, tertiaries, wing-coverts and tail dark 

 brown broadly edged with rufous-grey ; the primaries and secondaries 

 plain brown, the first primary with the shaft and outer web dull white ; the 

 lores and feathers round the eyes rufescent ; the ear-coverts and feathers 

 under the lores brown ; chin, cheeks and throat white ; the whole lower 

 plumage rufescent closely barred with brown ; the edge of the wing white ; 

 the under wing-coverts mingled white and brown. 



The young bird is very rufous, but otherwise like the female. 



Iris brown (probably red in old males) ; eyelids plumbeous ; frontal 

 shield and base of upper mandible deep red ; remainder of the bill yellow, 

 a spot on each side of the base of the lower mandible red ; frontal process 

 or horn pinkish; legs plumbeous green; claws horn- colour. 



Length 17 inches, tail 3*8, wing 8*5, tarsus 3*3, bill from gape 1*7. 

 The female is very much smaller, the wing being about 7 and the tail 3. 



The Water-cock is found over the whole of Burmah except, perhaps, in 

 the south of Tenasserim, where Mr. Davison did not observe it. 



It occurs over a considerable portion of India, Ceylon and the Andaman 

 Islands, the Indo-Burmese countries, Southern China, Cochin China, the 

 Malay peninsula, Java, Borneo, the Philippines, and probably Sumatra. 



This bird is common in all the low swampy parts of the country. I am 

 inclined to think that it visits Burmah only in the rains ; for I have never 

 met with it in the dry weather ; but at this period it will be silent, and 

 consequently likely to escape notice. It is generally seen in low flooded 

 grass-land, and it feeds chiefly in the mornings and late in the evenings. 

 It has a loud booming note, which may be heard a long distance and 

 cannot be mistaken for that of any other bird. I have frequently found 

 it breeding in July and August ; it makes a large nest of reeds on the 

 ground and lays five or six eggs, which are buff spotted with reddish 

 brown. 



